Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge

It's Christmastime, and to me, that means it's time for fudge!  I wanted to try something new and saw this recipe for peanut butter fudge.  Then, I found the same peanut butter fudge recipe on another blog, but this recipe has a layer of chocolate on top of the peanut butter.  I figured it was a nice combo of the chocolate fudge that I am used to and the new peanut butter addition. 


Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge
Recipe: www.ryansbakingblog.com
Printable Recipe


Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar


Directions:
Line the bottom and two sides of an 8″ square pan with parchment paper, leaving some hanging over the sides. Butter the pan and parchment paper well.
In a large bowl, sift the powdered sugar. Set aside.
In a medium microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and peanut butter. About 60 seconds on high and then stir together until all the chunks are gone (microwave more if necessary). Add the vanilla to the butter mixture and stir to combine.
Pour the butter mixture into the powdered sugar and mix together until well incorporated and the powdered sugar cannot be seen. This can be done by hand or in a stand mixer, I wouldn’t recommend using an electric hand mixer because the fudge gets very thick at this point.
Pour the fudge into the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Cover the fudge and place in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes, or until firm and then coat with chocolate topping.


Chocolate Topping
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (1 bag)
3 tablespoons peanut butter

Directions:
Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter until smooth. Allow to cool for a couple minutes so it won’t melt the fudge. Pour over fudge and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts, sea salt, or leave it plain. Place in the freezer for about 15 minutes to let the chocolate firm up (you could also do this in the fridge but it would take longer) and then place back in fridge or countertop until it is soft enough to be sliced.
Store in airtight containers for up to a week.


Amy's Notes:
I made the mistake of not using parchment paper when making this recipe.  Once I cut the fudge, it was very difficult to scoop it out without the peanut butter portion crumbling all over the place.  I should have gone to buy parchment paper (I'm not sure how I've gotten this far into all my baking without ever using parchment paper!) but I was too lazy to go to the store.  I used milk chocolate chips because it was what I had on hand and I wanted to use them up, but I would use semi-sweet chocolate chips if I were to do it again.  Besides the few crumbly, slightly disformed pieces, this fudge was good.  But I would still choose my mom's fudge over any other fudge!

Peanut butter fudge pressed into the pan

Freshly poured chocolate ready to be cooled

Yumm!