Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache Fudge Bars (yeah I went there)

It’s after 10pm as I’m writing this and by all counts, I should be in bed (I know, what an exciting life I live). The only thing keeping me going right now is that piece of cake thawed from my graduation all those months ago that I chowed down on partway through my t.v. night. But, I managed to also cross all of my studying and homework assignments off of today’s to-do list, leaving just two little tasks left before I hit the sack: writing this update because goodness knows I’m about to be swamped tomorrow, and actually getting ready for tomorrow (you know, packing copious amounts of food to stash in my lab coat in order to sneakily eat between rounds, picking out an outfit so I don’t have to rely on my not-yet-functional brain in the morning to color coordinate…).

It’s actually a blessing in disguise that I didn’t have time to write, edit, and post this update tonight, as it was meant to be about chocolate peanut butter fudge and I totally flubbed up and forgot to take a picture of the fudge when I made it. Never fear – as you can tell from this post, I still have a bunch hanging out in my freezer, waiting to come to my rescue. Not that being forced to make the recipe a second time in order to get a decent photograph would be the most tragic event in my life.

Am I making sense right now? I feel a little bit blather-y.

The take home message of this scattered post is this: Chocolate. Ganache. Peanut Butter. Fudge.

Basically, I took the leftover ganache from the s’mores cake I made for my birthday and mixed it (using that phrase loosely) with white chocolate peanut butter. And then I chilled it, sliced it, and froze it. And now I have slices of cold, creamy, rich chocolate fudge – literally like mini fudgsicles in a Tupperware container. I did an abysmal job of mixing the peanut butter, thinking I could dollop and swirl, but really all that means is that I wound up with predominantly chocolate ganache fudge with pockets of rich, creamy white chocolate flavored peanut butter instead of an evenly distributed combination. As you can imagine, this is also not the most tragic event in my life.

If you make these, I promise they will also not be the most tragic even in your life. In fact, I think you’ll find them pretty much glorious.

One Year Ago: Sweet Potato Power Smoothie
And, just for fun: the last Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge recipe I made!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ganache Fudge Bars

This strips of creamy chocolate and peanut butter are best from the freezer, firm enough to hold their shape but just waiting to melt into your mouth.

Yield: 12 servings¹

Active Time: 10-15 minutes

Inactive Time: 45-60 minutes

(printable recipe)

The Ingredients

6-8 ounces heavy cream²

6-8 ounces dark chocolate chips²

3 tablespoons (white chocolate) peanut butter

The Method

Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan set over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Set the chocolate chips in a medium-large mixing bowl with a fine mesh sieve placed over top. When the cream boils, remove from the heat and count to ten. Pour the cream through the sieve over the chocolate chips and let it sit untouched for approximately 30 seconds. Using a whisk and starting from the center, slowly begin stirring the mixture. Work your way out to the edges of the bowl and continue whisking, picking up speed as the chips begin to melt and incorporate, until you have a deep, rich chocolate ganache. Whisk the peanut butter in and set the bowl to the side.³ Line a 9x5 inch loaf pan with wax paper or plastic wrap and transfer the ganache to the prepared pan.

Refrigerate until firm (it won’t be rock hard), approximately 30 minutes. Remove from the pan carefully, peel back the edges of the paper or plastic, and slice into individual sized servings of your choosing. Flash freeze for another 15-30 minutes, then transfer to a freezer-safe container and return to the freezer. Serve straight from the freezer, no thawing required.

Notes:

¹This is a complete guess. Not only did I not measure my ingredients (see below), but I also didn’t pay much attention to the slices I was making, as I was really just futzing around in the kitchen with leftover ingredients to prevent having to throw perfectly good ganache in the trash (a sin, if you ask me). A normal loaf bread makes around 12 servings, hence why I wrote this would make around 12 servings, too. My slices were  much smaller, though,  so I probably got more out of the recipe. Just go with whatever size slice or cube you want. This isn’t so much a recipe as a suggestion.

²As I  mentioned above, this was a make-use-of-leftovers recipe. The full ganache recipe from the S’mores cake called for 8 ounces each of chocolate and cream. I would guess that after using it for that recipe, I was left with around 6 ounces each. The important part is making sure you do equal parts, or even slightly less cream compared to chocolate to make an even more solid fudge.

³I let the ganache chill in the pan, then come to room temperature when I was ready for it a day or so later, and then I tried to dollop and swirl the peanut butter in. This did not work well, which is why I suggest that you try it this way instead. The heat from the cream should help liquefy and disperse the peanut butter. I’d love to hear from  you if you try it!

One last thing I realized as I was taking these belated shots - please excuse the look of these bars. Apparently I had a momentary fit of insanity when deciding to slice these into the shape that I did. I know they look like I went outside and dug up some of Puppy Floptimism's, well, presents, if you know what I mean. If you cut these into fudge shapes or just larger slices they probably won't look so questionable. Clearly I'm still getting the hang of this whole food styling thing!