Holiday Baking: Fudge Edition

Well, the other day Melinda and I decided to attempt to make fudge. Now you can feel the hesitation in that sentence I bet. You see neither of us had ever made it before and we were doing this while we had to keep an eye on Braylon and Tanner. Quite the lofty undertaking.

We did learn a few lessons

• If you think the pot is big enough, get a bigger one! Melinda's boiled over, which resulted in both of us screaming. Not sure what exactly at. I spilled about half of my contents onto the stove trying to mix it.
• Fudge really works best if you have a candy thermometer. I did not. It is really hard to tell what 234 degrees "looks" like. And the ball stage one recipe told us to look for, well we are still not sure what that is.
• When baking at high temps with kids, have all ingredients measured, opened and ready to go in. Holding a 15 month old in one hand, screaming 'do not touch, hot' and tearing open a bag of chocolate is an art we have yet to master.
• A bowl of cookies on the floor will quite any toddler for the time being. And the closer to dinner time the better!
• Oh and never forget to lick the pot (once cooled) and spoon. That is where the best stuff still is. And I guess share it with the toddlers. It is never too early to learn the importance in licking the finished backing untiles!

All in all there it was a lot of fun and even a few tears were shed. We are still not sure what the boys were upset about (Mom of the Year award winners here!). Oh and the best part besides all of the fudged we get to eat... Both boys left the "playdate" unharmed. No hits or bites were exchanged. I would call that a success all around.

The boys attempting to not look like they were taking apart the tree seconds earlier.

"Okay boys, now lick the spoon clean or no dinner for you."

My pumpkin fudge

Melinda's creamy chocolate fudge with nuts.

Stay tuned, up next on holiday baking we are taking it up a notch. We will have three toddlers making sugar cookies. Mommies will cute them and bake and the kiddos will frost them! It will be a mess but I am hoping it will be fun too!