Monday, November 28, 2011

Homemade Strawberry Almond Milkshake Fudge Mix and Peanut Butter Fudge Mix and New Packaging Ideas

Monday I try to share Food Storage recipes, but especially during the Christmas holiday season when things tend to get a little tight around people's budgets...I try to share real ideas that work for great gifts. In fact, it's gift week here on the blog. Tomorrow I have a Holiday gift mix class at Honeyville Farms. Friday I have a neighbor gift making segment on Fox 10. Saturday I have a Holiday Bold Better Bread Class at Honeyville again. Midnight that night 

Big Gift Week Giveaway with Cherie Call Albums, Chef Tess E-books and Holiday Mixes will end. Pop on over to that post and find out how to win some great stuff!


 Somewhere in-between...I hope to post all the amazing new recipes I've been working on. In fact, I have so many new recipes it's almost scary. ...*Almost*... 
I'm happy to share some great recipes and ideas to help make your holiday bright! 
So. Let's start with the fudge!

 One of my favorite ways to package the prepared fudge to give away is to wrap it in natural wax paper and either tuck in the edges or twist them like a giant candy bar.
Individual pieces of the fudge look super-dang adorable wrapped in a twist of natural wax paper like this.
 Also they're 'uper-deee-doooper cutsie in a mason jar with some funky ribbon.
So...here's my original recipe for the creamy divine Strawberry Almond Milkshake Fudge mix.
 Chef Tess Magic Strawberry Almond Milkshake Fudge 
2 lb powdered sugar (about 7 cups)
1 cup Powdered butter
3 cups Honeyville Strawberry Milk Powder (2 1/2 cup instant milk powder and 1/2 cup strawberry milk flavoring like Nestle if you don't have the Strawberry milk powder)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Mix-a-Meal Almond Flavoring Powder (or you can use 2 tsp almond extract but it's not as good for mixes as the powder)
Mix directions:
Combine all ingredients until well blended. Place in a gallon size freezer bag. I store the bags in the fridge or freezer. Great gift for the holidays! When the holiday get closer, I simply slip the mix into a fabric bag with the directions to mix on a cute tag. Give it away not just
for the winter holidays, but for Mother's Day. Father's Day. Tuesday.
To prepare:
Put mix in a microwave safe bowl with 3/4 cup water and heat about 2 minutes stirring well. Heat one more minute. In the meantime line an 8 inch by 8 inch cake pan with foil then spray the foil with nonstick coating. Pour the melted mix into the foil lined pan and top with nuts or dried fruit if desired. Leave pan out to cool 3-4 hours or overnight. Remove from the pan, and take off the foil. Cut into 1 inch
squares, yield 4 dozen love bombs. about 4 lbs of Strawberry Fudge.
To make into 4 mixes, simply divide the mix into 4. This will yield about 2 1/2 cups per mix. Cooking directions will be use 2T water and a small mini loaf pan instead of the 8 inch by 8 inch pan. (I'm including the printable label pdf.)


 Now for the Peanut Butter Fudge Mix!

  Chef Tess Peanut Butter Fudge Mix
8 cups powdered sugar
1 cup Powdered butter
3 cups Peanut Butter Powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp Mix-a-Meal Vanilla Powder
Mix directions:
Combine all ingredients until well blended. Place in a gallon size freezer bag. I store the bags in the fridge or freezer. Great gift for the holidays! When the holiday get closer, I simply slip the mix into a fabric bag with the directions to mix on a cute tag. Give it away not just
for the winter holidays, but for Mother's Day. Father's Day. Tuesday.
To prepare:
Put mix in a microwave safe bowl with 3/4 cup water and heat about 2 minutes stirring well. Heat one more minute. In the meantime line an 8 inch by 8 inch cake pan with foil then spray the foil with nonstick coating. Pour the melted mix into the foil lined pan and top with nuts or dried fruit if desired. Leave pan out to cool 3-4 hours or overnight. Remove from the pan, and take off the foil. Cut into 1 inch
squares, yield 4 dozen love bombs. about 4 lbs of Peanut Butter Fudge.
  To make into 4 mixes, simply divide the mix into 4. This will yield about 3 cups per mix. Cooking directions will be use 2T water and a small mini loaf pan instead of the 8 inch by 8 inch pan. (I'm including the printable label pdf.)

I used my giant creative mind and came up with this fun way to package the mixes this year.
 Just using a square of card-stock style "scrapbook paper" I wrapped around the Ziploc baggie of mix. I attached the mixing directions to the colorful tube.
 Simply taped with clear package tape and stapled the ends.

These are super cute with any vintage wrapping, but I love that the cardstock will hold up almost like a box.

Slip into a wine bag and it's just freakin' cute! Cost per mix, about 75cents. Give or take. They don't look that cheap now do they?!!

So there you go. A couple new fudge mix recipes!
Get the printable labels for the smaller batches of fudge (they will work with all 3 different varieties of my fudge) and my original dark chocolate fudge mix recipe Here.
Enjoy!
Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

5 comments:

Brenda Dlr said...

Those all look so awesome, and the packaging ideas are adorable! So sorry we missed the class. :( Thank you for so generously providing the instructions and recipes to us anyway. Can't wait to try these out and they're gonna make wonderful gifts this Christmas! Thanks!

Marie said...

Can you use butter in place of the powdered butter? Both look so yummy! I really want to make these.

Nana2boys said...

Thank you so much for posting these. Us out of staters are grateful.

aswesow said...

I sure wish we could get powdered butter in Canada, because I'd love to be able to make a dry mix. I really liked the chocolate fudge, but I forget how to substitute butter for powdered butter.

Chef Tess said...

The original fudge post on my blog from back in 2008 has how to do it with butter. :Magic Fudge Mix...
because life isn't full of sinful enough convenience foods, right?

2 lb powdered sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla, rum extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients in a kitchen aid with the paddle attachment until well blended. Divide between 4 quart size bags, (2 1/2 cups mix per bag). I store the bags in the fridge or freezer.

Great gift for the holidays! Mother's Day. Father's Day. Tuesday.

To prepare: Put mix in a microwave safe bowl with 2T water and heat about 2 minutes stirring well. In the mean time line a mini loaf pan (4 inches by 2 inches) with foil then spray the foil with nonstick coating. Pour the melted mix into the foil lined pan and top with nuts or dried fruit if desired. Put in the fridge until set, about 1 hour. Remove from the pan, and take off the foil. Cut into 1 inch squares, yield 2 dozen love bombs. "