Easy chocolate fudge with hazelnuts and shortbread cookies

Happy New Year! Happy and Healthy 2018! May it bring to you all that you wish for and more!

Yesterday, on the first day of the year, I cooked, a lot. Greek slow-cooked leg of lamb with potatoes and this fudge. Because I hadn’t made a single sweet chocolate dessert throughout the holidays and I was feeling deprived.

This is the easiest chocolate fudge and the most delicious to boot. Dark and a little bit of milk chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, a dash of vanilla, a smidgen of ground espresso beans, a big handful of hazelnuts and leftover kourabiedes (Greek Christmas shortbread cookies), that you can substitute with any kind of shortbread you have on hand.

Cut into small cubes, no more than two bites each, it is quite sweet after all, it’s the best little sweet treat to have anytime of the year. Hope you enjoy!

Easy chocolate fudge with hazelnuts and shortbread cookies

Use good quality chocolate; it will make a difference.
This is a slightly chewy fudge, dense and ultra chocolatey with notes of hazelnuts and buttery shortbread.

Yield: 56 small squares

Ingredients
400 g sweetened condensed milk (1 can)
425 g good quality dark chocolate (55-60% cocoa solids), chopped
85 g good quality milk chocolate (at least 35% cocoa solids), chopped
40 g (2 Tbsp) unsalted butter
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp ground espresso beans (or instant espresso powder)
Pinch of sea salt
100 g blanced hazelnuts, finely chopped
3-4 small kourabiedes (mine were two bites each) or other shortbread cookies, crumbled/crushed with your hands (if you’re using kourabiedes, tap off the icing sugar)

A bit of vegetable oil for greasing the pan

Special equipment: 20x20cm square pan, plastic wrap, baking paper


Preparation
Grease the bottom and sides of the pan with some vegetable oil. Cover the sides and bottom of the pan with plastic wrap, leaving a big overhang to be able to cover completely the finished fudge. This will also help you to lift the fudge and remove it from the pan once it has chilled.

Add the sweetened condensed milk, dark and milk chocolate, butter, vanilla, espresso and salt in a medium-sized, glass heatproof bowl and set it over a pan of barely simmering water (bain-marie). Stir with a heatproof silicone spatula until the chocolate and butter has melted and you have a smooth and glossy mixture. It will be somewhat dense.

Take the bowl off the pan, add the chopped hazelnuts and crumbled shortbread cookies, and mix them in the fudge with the spatula to distribute evenly. Empty the mixture into the prepared square pan and smooth the top. If there’s any excess grease on top of the fudge, dab it with a paper towel. Cover the fudge gently with the overhanging plastic wrap and leave for 30 minutes to cool at room temperature. Then place in the fridge for about 4 hours or until is has chilled thoroughly and it is set.

Unwrap the top of the plastic wrap from the fudge and use it to lift the chilled fudge from the pan. Lay a piece of baking paper on a clean work surface and turn the fudge over onto the baking paper. Peel off the plastic wrap and using a long and thin knife, cut the fudge into 56 small squares.

You can keep the fudge covered with baking paper and plastic wrap in the fridge for a week.