Cookies 'n' Creme Fudge

If there's anything that I love, love, L-O-V-E, it would have to be fudge. I think I could eat fudge every day for the rest of my life and be completely content with it. So many variations, so much delicious.

It's been hot like Hell in DC this weekend, with temperatures hitting 104. So what did I do all day today? Well, I trekked around the hot and humid streets of DC, hitting museums and searching out food with Jack Licata... in retrospect, not a good decision on our parts. I got sunburnt and dehydrated, and was in no shape to do anything productive this afternoon. I'd been wanting to make fudge for a while, and my roommate Cassie INSISTED on me varying up the flavor. She helped me find a recipe for cookies 'n' creme fudge, and I ran with it.

Cookies 'n' Creme Fudge

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. white chocolate
• 12 oz. sweetened condensed milk
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 c. roughly chopped chocolate cookies

To Make:

1. In a saucepan, over medium-low heat, combine white chocolate, condensed milk and salt. Stir until smooth.
2. Fold in the cookies.
3. Line a baking pan with foil, and spread the mixture into the pans. Chill for at least two hours. Turn the fudge out onto a cutting board, and remove the foil.

Some Notes:

• Eliminate crumbs when chopping the cookies. They discolor the fudge.
• Be very, very careful to stir the white chocolate constantly while melting, and not to allow it to burn. The mixture can go from beautiful to disaster in seconds.
• This is such a basic recipe, and so easy to make, I am definitely going to get creative with flavor combinations in the future! Be ready for some weird fudge flavors coming out of this kitchen.

Lime & White Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake Bars

Money has been a little tight lately, but I've been working to ensure that pinching pennies doesn't mean that I have to cut back on my baking! I was looking for a recipe with the following qualifications (set by my boyfriend Joe and our friend Igor): few ingredients, something the equipment-poor kitchen at Joe's apartment could produce, not too much chocolate, and nothing too fancy. These cheesecake bars greatly exceeded expectations! They were gone within an hour of my offering them to the hoard of (five) young men who were currently occupying the apartment.

Lime & White Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake Bars

Adapted from Bon Appétit 

Ingredients:

• 7 oz. Lindt (or other high-quality) white chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 10 oz. of chocolate flavored Teddy Grahams
• 1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. whipping cream
• 8 oz. of cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp. fresh lime juice
• optional garnish: white chocolate chips or curls, lime wedges, edible glitter

To Make:

1. Line 8x8 baking pan with foil so that some can fold over each side.
2. Use food processor to finely grind Teddy Grahams. Add 2 tbsp. of whipping cream to crumbs and pulse to combine. Firmly press Teddy Graham mixture into the baking pan, and store in freezer while making the filling.
3. Whip the remaining 1/2 c. whipping cream in medium bowl until it holds stiff peaks.
4. In large bowl, beat to combine cream cheese, sugar, and lime juice. Add whipped cream in 2 parts and stir until smooth. Fold in white chocolate. Smooth mixture over prepared crust and chill for at least two hours. Garnish before serving.

Some Notes:

• I wanted to serve the bars quickly, so I chilled the bars by freezing for one hour before serving. After that hour, I would keep the bars in the refrigerator to keep from ruining the texture of the filling.
• Garnishes are a personal choice. Be creative! I used white chocolate chips left over from another recipe and edible glitter (available in cake decorating stores) to make the bars more professional looking and magical!