Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

Another hit! This is exactly how fudge should taste and feel in your mouth....smooth, velvety and decadent. Helps that you try to use only the best dark chocolate you can find. I found mine in Melbourne's The Essential Ingredient in Prahran Market. Callebaut make's one of the finest dark chocolate callets (chocolate bits shaped like lentils) in the industry. I got a packet of 57.8% cocoa and though that's semi-sweet, it didn't kill the fudge. While fudges are supposed to be sugar-coating the insides of your mouth, it doesn't need to be diabetes-inducing. The result was addictive. Can't have enough of it! I was also very pleased to use the slivered fresh pistachios in the fridge. Got that in I-will-not-go-to-Vic-Market-again. Pistachios in my opinion, are the Hermes of nuts. It's great for your heart, very high in anti-oxidants and one of the most expensive nuts in the market....yes, I think Hermes is also very good for my heart, thank you. So expensive that we only get old, waxy, dried ones here. Probably the lowest grade Iran can spare. But seeing that vendor with the pile of green gold amongst its pale earthy cousins, I had to buy some back. The chocolate fudge was a perfect catalyst to the pistachios. Now, THAT is food porn.

White Chocolate (and Macadamia) Brownies

Another morning of , "What shall I bake for tea?". No, I don't always bake for tea on a weekday but I had to make a point to do that on Mondays. Young Master has a jam-packed schedule on Mondays and while he's swallowing his food instead of chewing 20 times, I had to make sure whatever he swallowed were jam-packed with calories. On Mondays, he has to be snacking tea in the car on the way to sports practise. So, snack had to be something small and easy to eat. We had dark chocolate brownie the week before, and I had to try finish the white chocolate buttons in the fridge. So, I looked for a Blondie - white chocolate brownie recipe. HTBADG has one and with my apprehension with white chocolate....I was determined to tweak it from the beginning. First, I cut the sugar by 1/3. Second, I replaced macadamia nuts with dried cranberries. The recipe change worked wonders. It was divine and you don't hear that from me very often when it comes to white chocolate. The balance was perfect. This will probably be the only white chocolate dessert recipe I'd repeat.