Salted Nutella Fudge

I make fudge every year. Even before I began the foray into peppermint bark, fudge was my holiday candy jam. And why not? It’s delicious and stupid easy to make. I may be a cupcake master, but I don’t shy away from the simplest recipes for candy making. And having discovered Marshmallow Fluff at a young age (it’s a key ingredient in my moms amazing whoopie pies) I did what any typical kid would do: use the recipe on the side of the fluff jar and WOW my friends and family with amazing fudge.

But then I grew up and developed a taste for the finer things in life. Like Nutella. And combining the flavors of Nutella with the ease of making fudge around the holidays totally amped up my fudge game. This is a little more time consuming than regular chocolate fudge.  You know, instead of taking 5 minutes it takes 15. But it’s definitely worth it. This fudge is a newbie to the holiday baking team but all the regulars gave him a warm welcome. The awesome power of Nutella is strong and that is so prevalent here. If you have 15 minutes of free time and want to really impress your peoples, make this fudge. Get ready for the wide-eyed fascination that occurs with with anything Nutella.

Sea Salt Nutella Fudge

Ingredients

• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (you want to use a good quality)
• 1 cup Nutella, room temperature
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• Course sea salt

Directions

• Grease the bottom and sides of an 8×8 baking pan with butter. Line the pan with parchment paper (or you can use tin foil), leaving a 2-inch overlap on the sides.
• In a medium glass bowl, mix together sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, bittersweet chocolate chips, Nutella, and butter.
• Form a double-boiler by setting the bowl on a medium pot of gently simmering water. The water level should be low enough that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water (about 2 inches of water). Stir until the chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is smooth.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread the top smooth with a spatula. Refrigerate until the fudge is set.
• After about 1 hour of chilling, I sprinkled the top with course sea salt. If you use fine salt then you may want to wait until the fudge is fully firm. Continue to chill for fudge for another hour (making the minimum time needed to chill 2 hours.)
• Using the overhanging parchment paper, lift the fudge out. Peel off the parchment paper.Run a knife under hot water, dry it off, and cut the fudge into 3/4-inch squares -the hot knife helps make clean cuts. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container. This will keep for several weeks in the freezer, but it definitely wont last that long.