Baked Fudge

I have recently discovered The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond has a delightful website and cookbook full of great recipes, stories, and photographs. She's incredibly funny and I've spent a lot of time on her website. You should check her out (www.thepioneerwoman.com). I can wait here......see? Aren't you glad you looked at her site? It just makes you feel better. Today's recipe comes from her. Baked Fudge. Let's begin, shall we? I don't want to keep you from this recipe.

Baked Fudge (The Pioneer Woman)

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 heaping Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 level Tablespoons flour
1 tsp vanilla



Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. If your oven doesn't get too hot, you can use 325. Melt 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) and set aside. Use an electric mixer to beat the 2 eggs until they are lighter in color. Since I don't have a stand mixer, I used my hand mixer. I know, it makes me sad too. Pour in 1 cup of sugar. Mix until thoroughly combined. Next, add 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder followed by 2 level tablespoons of flour. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and your melted (but not too hot) butter. Mix on low-speed until well combined. Take a baking dish and fill about 1/2 way with water. Fill your ramekins evenly and place in the water. Bake for 40 minutes. When it's time to check them, use a toothpick. The top should be solid, but the toothpick should not come out clean. Ree warned that there's a trial and error process to this and she wasn't kidding. Make sure that the fudge doesn't jiggle when the ramekins are moved, but the inside shouldn't be a brownie consistency either. Mine (even after a few return visits to the oven) are still a bit thinner than I think they're supposed to be. However, they don't run off the spoon so I think we're fine for the first attempt. Ree made a heavy cream sauce for the top, but I don't have any on hand so I skipped that step. Now, let's look at the pictures so we can all enter a sugar coma together.



Please be very impressed by this action shot. I worked hard for it.