Chocolate Pretzel Fudge and Peanut Butter Fudge

John and I have had a marathon of Christmas potlucks this year. For the final holiday party before we leave town, I decided to try two very simple fudge recipes I've come across recently. Neither involved a candy thermometer, boiled sugar, or a "soft ball stage," all things I'm unfamiliar with.

















I think my mom and I tried to make fudge once when I was younger, and it was a real disaster, so I've stayed away from fudge recipes ever since. But these two are pretty simple. All you need is a double boiler - and really, all you need is a bowl and a pot to use as a lazy man's double boiler.


















The chocolate fudge recipe is from Martha Stewart and it involves putting chopped pretzels in the chocolate mixture before it sets. The sweet-salty combo is delicious. You can get the recipe from Martha Stewart's website here.



















The peanut butter fudge recipe is from Annie's Eats. Her instructions ask you to melt everything n the microwave. I haven't mentioned this here, but our microwave croaked a month or so ago and we haven't replaced it. Instead, we bought a used toaster oven on the cheap ("El Toastito"). So in order to melt everything for this recipe I just used a double boiler again and it seemed to work fine. It's pretty hard to screw up melted butter, peanut butter, and sugar.



















That is one intensely rich plate of fudge.