Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge

November 20: National Peanut Butter Fudge Day

Need a quick sweet snack to share at a social gathering during the upcoming holidays? Then prepare chocolate peanut butter fudge! It only takes a few minutes to microwave and stir the ingredients together and just an hour to chill the chocolate peanut butter fudge. And a little also goes a long way! Fudge is fabulous as a gourmet gift when presented in a pretty package or on a party platter. For a fast and festive food, make chocolate peanut butter fudge for National Peanut Butter Fudge Day and holiday events.

Recipe

(Adapted from Jif)

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 jar (18 ounces) crunchy peanut butter (we used Jif brand extra crunchy)
• 1 package (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¼ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

Directions

Line an 8×8-inch square pan with foil, leaving some overhang. Mist with cooking spray. In a large microwave-safe bowl, place the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Microwave on high for a minute or two, stirring until melted.

Add the almond extract and condensed milk and blend well until smooth. Quickly pour into prepared pan.

Refrigerate to set for at least an hour. Remove from the refrigerator. Lift the foil overhang to take the fudge out of the pan. Slice into small squares.

Notes

• Although we are not fond of fudge, we actually like this recipe because the extra crunchy peanut butter tones down the sweetness of the chocolate.
• Find more fudge, peanut butter and chocolate recipes on our blog by searching on the sidebar.

Pão Doce (Portuguese Sweet Bread)

November 17: National Bread Day

With a significant population of Portuguese immigrants in Hawaii, Islander grew up exposed to their culture and cuisine. Her family especially enjoyed eating round loaves of Portuguese sweet bread (pão doce) from Leonard’s Bakery and other lesser known local brands. But King’s Hawaiian Bakery brought sweet bread to the mainland, did marketing miracles and made the rolls and buns world famous.

We attempted to prepare pão doce in our bread machine as a project for National Bread Day. Although it is denser and not as light and fluffy as the bakery bread, it still tastes terrific as toast! Bom apetite!

Recipe

(Adapted from More Electric Bread)

Ingredients

• ½ cup water
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 tablespoon milk powder
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ teaspoon lemon zest
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup potato flakes
• 2 tabelspoons frozen pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
• 1 teaspoon yeast, active dry

Directions

In the well of the bread machine pan, place the water, bread flour, milk powder, sugar and salt.

Layer the butter or margarine, beaten egg, lemon zest and vanilla over the dry mixture.

Next add the potato flakes (which will soak up the liquids), pineapple juice and yeast. Place the well into the bread machine. Set it for regular loaf, sweet cycle and light crust setting. Press start and allow the machine to knead, rise and bake the bread.

When the cycle is done, carefully remove the hot well from the machine. Take the bread out of the well. Allow to cool on a wire rack. Slice and serve fresh or toasted.

Notes

• Pão doce makes excellent French toast. See the recipes for pain perdu or a breakfast casserole.
• Instead of Portuguese sweet bread, try Portuguese cheese bread (pão de queijo). Refer to the recipe here.
• An ‘ukulele, introduced to Hawaii by the Portuguese, is a prop in the picture above. Mahalo to Islander’s brother for leaving it in our house to play whenever he comes over (but we claim that uke as ours now!).

Tunnel of Fudge Bundt Cake

November 15: National Bundt Pan Day

Most homestyle bakers have a bundt in their cake pan collection. Islander has ta few—a fancy pineapple-design form and two mini bundt pans—but she borrows a basic one from her brother. The round, ridged mold with a hole in the middle gives cakes a distinctive shape.

The bundt pan evolved from the Viennese kugelhopf.  Austrians and Germans who immigrated to North America brought their baking traditions—and ring-shaped pans—with them. The word “bund” translates to “community” or “a gathering of people;” hence, the round pan shape for cakes that were meant to be shared during coffee or tea time. The first reference to a recipe for bundt kuchen was found in the turn-of-the-20th-century “Milwaukee Settlement Cookbook.”

Nordic Ware adapted the design to make a bundt pan at the request of members of the Hadassah Society, an American Jewish volunteer women’s organization. The company trademarked the pan in 1950, but sales were slow. A decade later, “Good Housekeeping Cookbook” featured a pound cake recipe baked in a bundt. In 1966, after a “Tunnel of Fudge” bundt cake recipe won second place at a Pillsbury Bake-Off, the bundt became the best-selling cake pan in America!

Nordic Ware and other companies continue to make classic and creative bundt pans in different designs, shapes and sizes. In 2007, some of the original Nordic Ware bundt pans became part of the museum exhibits at the Smithsonian Institute.

Pillsbury licensed the bundt name in 1970 for its line of cake mixes, which are not available as of this post. But we made a version (see Notes) of the Tunnel of Fudge bundt cake to observe National Bundt Pan Day.

Recipe

(Adapted from Pillsbury and Busy Cooks via About.com)

For the Tunnel of Fudge cake

• 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar, granulated white
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 1 ¾ cup flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 2 cups chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
• 1 tub chocolate fudge frosting (we used Pillsbury brand)

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugars and blend well. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and cocoa powder. Using a spatula, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix by hand. Fold in the nuts. Generously grease the sides of the bundt pan with vegetable shortening or cooking spray just before adding the batter in it.

Place half the batter into the pan. Spoon a thin ring of the fudge frosting in the middle of the batter, being careful not to let it touch the inner and outer sides of the bundt pan. Place the remaining batter on both sides of the fudge frosting and on top. Smooth it out. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes to an hour or until the edges of the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the bundt pan. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for about two hours. Invert onto a wire rack over a foil-lined lipped pan to cool completely. Prepare the glaze.

For the chocolate glaze

• ¾ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder/unsweetened cocoa
• 6-8 teaspoons milk

Directions

In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar with the cocoa. Stir in the milk until it is smooth and has a drizzle-like consistency.

Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze on top of the bundt cake, letting it drip down the sides. Transfer to a cake platter, slice and serve.

Notes

• The original Tunnel of Fudge cake recipe included powdered fudge frosting mix, but Pillsbury has discontinued the product. Since the 1966 bake-off, the company has modified the recipe. The fudge from the tunnel is basically the undercooked batter, which is similar to a molten chocolate or lava cake.
• Other companies, such as Nordic Ware (makers of the bundt pan and a Tunnel of Fudge cake mix) and Sof’Ella, make bundt cake mixes.
• When we previously attempted to make a Tunnel of Fudge cake, it crumbled when released from the bundt pan (not greased enough) and it did not have fudge oozing out of the tunnel (overbaked). We also modified the recipe by following the concept of filled cupcakes (such as Betty Crocker brand FUN da-Middles). Half the batter is poured into the pan, a syrup filling is squeezed in the middle, then the remaining batter covers the filling before baking.
• Thanks to Islander’s brother for letting us borrow his basic bundt pan for this Tunnel of Fudge cake recipe.
• Thanks to Lisa L. who gifted Islander with the adorable “aloha” bundt pan.
• Search our blog for recipes of other cakes baked in bundt pans.