Making lemonade

Last Monday started like any other painfully sleepy start to the week. I attempted to keep myself on track and strayed so often, getting distracted by foodie blogs, by music, when suddenly I spotted a newly-posted recipe on smittenkitchen for Coconut Milk Fudge, and then and there decided that was my plan for the evening. Make. Fudge.

Fast-forward ten hours or so, and I’m at home, sitting on the counter next to my oven, book in one hand, whisk in the other. I’ve been stirring the bloody fudge mixture for an hour and it has set to the approximate consistency of ketchup. Or hershey’s chocolate sauce. Nothing even remotely close to being hard enough to roll into balls and coat in the beautiful crunchy coconut toasted early that evening.

The “fudge” went into a bowl in the fridge. And I pouted. And posted a comment on her blog, only to find out I am seemingly the only person in her whole range of internet audience that had any trouble with these not turning out perfectly with minimal effort.

Take two: Fast-forward to Wednesday. I’m again at home, the book, the pan, the whisk- all there. And instead, after 45 minutes rather than an hour when no progress had been made, I hurled some choice phrases at my non-fudge, put in a bowl, and stuck it in the fridge next to the other one.

Fail.

Last night I worked at the shop, which put me home around 11:15, and just starting to make the b-day treat for a co-worker. I baked lovely fudgy brownies (out of a box- don’t judge me). When they came out of the oven- gooey, perfect- I pricked the tops of the brownies with a fork and then after a few minutes of cooling (still in the pan), I poured both batches of the "fudge" over the top.

The next morning, I sprinkled most of that lovely crunchy toasted coconut over the top, and then cut them up into 1 1/2 inch squares. The topping barely stayed on the brownies, I have to admit, but ohhhh man, they were good. The toasted coconut gave a little texture and crunch, and the creaminess of the sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk had permeated the brownie batter.



All in all, for two nights of failure, these were darn good. And should my next attempt at fudge be just as unsuccessful (because you know I'll try again, I can't just leave things alone), at least I know these will be a hit.