Easiest Chocolate Fudge

I know that many of the recipes I post on here are complicated and involve tons of fancy ingredients. Those are fun and delicious recipes. But as you can also see, some of the recipes I post involve boxed cake mixes, canned doughs, and other quick-and-easy processed ingredients. Sometimes I use them because it’s easier, and sometimes I use them because they just taste better. Really.

This is one of the latter recipes.

I’m all for traditional fudge, made by bringng a mixture of sugar, cocoa, butter, and water to just the right temperature, then stirring just enough to make tiny sugar crystals and chilling at just the right time to keep it smooth and creamy. I’m all for eating it, that is. My attempts at making it have fallen flat, and the other recipes I’ve seen or tried, using melted marshmallows, evaporated or sweetened condensed milk, or other non-traditional ingredients, aren’t really all that great. But then I tried using canned frosting.

No, really, canned chocolate fudge frosting, melted together with chocolate chips. The resulting fudge is the smoothest, creamiest, most delicious fudge I’ve ever tried– probably due to all the artificial stabilizers. The sweetness of the frosting cuts the chocolate just enough to make it perfect– I find that without the added sugar it just doesn’t taste like my idea of fudge (it ends up more like firm ganache, which is good but not what I’m going for). I make mine with toasted walnuts for crunch, but you could use whatever you like.

Frosting Fudge

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

1 can chocolate fudge frosting (not the whipped kind)

5 oz. walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

1. Line a 9×9″ square baking pan with parchment paper or foil.

2. Remove the foil lid from the frosting and microwave the open can in 30-second bursts until liquidy, stirring between bursts.

3. In a large, microwave-safe bowl, pour the liquid frosting over the chocolate chips, let stand for a minute or two, and stir. Microwave for an additional 30 seconds if necessary, and stir until smooth.

4. Stir in chopped nuts.

5. Scrape fudge into prepared pan, smooth the top, and chill until firm, at least 2 hours.

6. Slice into 1″ squares with a long, sharp knife dipped in hot water for the cleanest cuts.

7. Store in the refrigerator.

Notes:

1. I like a lot of walnuts in my fudge to cut the overall sweetness– but that’s just my personal taste. You can cut the walnuts down to 3 oz. if you prefer the walnuts to be mere accents to the fudge.
2. You can try all sorts of combinations of frosting and chips to see what flavors work well together. I’ll bet that cream cheese frosting, butterscotch chips, and spiced pecans would be a great treat for fall! Or lemon frosting, white chocolate chips, and macadamia nuts. Or coconut-pecan frosting with milk chocolate chips. The possibilities are endless!