Winter break has officially begun and we are entering the week of Christmas! Tis’ the season for all things festive and fun!
To send off my daughter’s preschool teachers we made fudge together.
For as long as I can remember this was a tradition I did with my mother at Christmas time. It’s an easy recipe that takes no time at all while making memories with your family!
I use Carnation Evaporated Milk recipe minus the marshmallows and added walnuts.
Mama’s Fudge Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
- 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups (9 oz.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Line 8 inch square baking pan with foil. Spray foil lightly with Pam non-stick cooking spray. Combine sugar evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts, chocolate morsels and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until mixture has melted. Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces or as desired.
Fudge makes a perfect holiday gift or hostess gift as you enter the week of Christmas and New Year’s! Simply line your favorite tin or box with tissue paper and add the fudge.
The best memories are ones with your loved ones! This is the second year we’ve made Christmas cookies together.
It’s amazing what a difference a year makes! Cooking and baking with your kids not only makes wonderful memories, but teaches them measurements, portion control, where our food comes from, and hopefully to become bakers and cooks.
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1¼ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups of flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- colored sugars for decorating
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix until combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Make sure to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife to ensure accurate measurements. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
- Roll the dough between 2 sheets of parchment or wax paper and place on a baking sheet in the refrigerator. Chill for about 20-30 minutes.
- Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters and transfer to a baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugars and bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 40-50 cookies.
For this recipe, the dough only needs to chill about 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator since it is already rolled out. If you would rather chill the dough first before rolling, you’ll want to increase the chill time to about an hour.Using the parchment paper is a great tip for rolling the dough, because it eliminates the need to add extra flour to keep it from sticking. However, I didn’t have any parchment paper I choose the old fashion route.
I found Love Grows Wild tip about letting the cookies cool for only 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then lifting them with a spatula onto a cooling rack to be the difference in a soft tasting sugar cookie!
Hope this inspires you to make traditions and memories with your family and friends this holiday season!
My family also has the tradition of making fudge at the holidays, in fact, my mom’s fudge was famous back in California! Sadly, since we moved to Colorado, we haven’t been able to perfect it in the high altitude, but I still think it tastes great 🙂
I love baking with my girls too! We always have several batches of peanut butter fudge (made with Carnation Evaporated Milk too) and of course, we have to bake sugar cookies. Actually, I bake them, they decorate!
What fun times! My little one is only a toddler, but she loves to “help” when my husband and I are fixing things in the kitchen. I bet she’ll be making fudge and cookies in no time! 🙂
Wow, that’s such a lovely tradition to have with family, I’m sure it’s an absolute blast and those girls are making great memories! Plus, I bet your kitchen smelled delicious! Thank you for sharing a peek into your holidays with us all and including such gorgeous photos!
If you only knew how many sweets and chocolates we’ve stuffed out faces with already, you wouldn’t be putting up recipes of yummy fudge, that I just so happen to have all the ingredients for…..(on a side note, I’m off to the group personal trainer in 15 minutes to get ‘evaluated’ Not even Kidding.)
These looks so good. I love fudge.
Mmm, Christmas cookies are my favorite! Making cookies with my mom is a holiday tradition for my family too. Since you like trying different recipes, you should check out my blog for my Grandma Vera’s classic sugar cookie recipe. So yummy!
I’m going to be honest I am terrified of decorating parties. I got my Grandmas cleaning gene and OCD. I don’t like mess at all but it looks like a lot of fun! I would love to participate in one but I think I would have to pass.
I cant lie I end up eating most of the cookie dough, looks like fun!
Very cute! And I was thinking about gathering the items to do this on Christmas day with the kiddos. We shall see 🙂
What a great fun time! Looks very different. Love the recipe as well. Thanks for sharing this. Will have to try this one for this holiday season.
Ive never tried making my own fudge, but with this recipe I am gonna have to…pinning!
SO so much fun! You just made my stomach growl- mouthwatering pictures too.
It’s tradition baking with my children as well. They have long since outgrown their matching Christmas aprons, but you will still find us making 5 or 6 different recipes every year. I love the festive milk cups, have not seen those at our Michaels.
this looks like such a great bake to do with children,
This looks like so much fun! Maybe I’ll have a cookie decorating party next year!
these are fantastic traditions!! I can’t wait for my little one to grow up a bit so we can create our own 🙂
Ohh, yum. It all looks so good and like you had loads of fun.
My daughter would love this. Thanks so much for sharing. These pictures are wonderful.
Wow, the fudge and the cookies all look delicious and I’m sure your daughter had so much fun!
So fun! We are making fudge TONIGHT! I can’t wait!
My husband and middle son are in charge of making the fudge for our neighbors every year!
Omg your cookies look pretty delicious!! And I bought the same milk jugs!! Too cute to pass up 😉
what fun family traditions!! I love what you’ve shared! Thank you so much!
These are two super fun family traditions. The photos are beautiful as always.
Holiday traditions are so important, especially for kids. It gives them fond memories to look back and pass down to their future kids. Plus, it makes for great bonding time. Happy New Year! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas.