When the lockdown began, one of the people we discovered in the podcasting-from-home days was a delightful expat from Seattle named Andrea Ballard. We asked people to contact us if they wanted to call in to the podcast, and she did. Turns out she has her own podcast, called Preheated, which she does with a former co-worker and good friend who has since moved to London. That must be a scheduling nightmare when they have to podcast together. Who is staying up late, and who is getting up early?
We’ll have to talk about that next time, because we like Andrea so much she is a semi-regular. Like the food community around the Food Show, there is a baking community around their podcast, and listeners bake the same things and report their results. The last time Andrea called in we talked about chocolate, and finding the really good stuff. We also talked about London.
This time we talked about cookies, and fudge. We love this picture, because it looks Fourth of July-ish, and is baked on a grill outdoors. It is called a Pizookie, and it is lightly smoked from the grill, but only if your grill is charcoal. It’s baked outside in a cast iron skillet because it’s hot outside now, and Andrea says that a gas grill will simply bake it without the smoke.
It can be done with any cookie. It’s simply about the method: cast iron skillet. Grill. It can be covered or not to control the smoke essence.
I asked Andrea about fudge, since we talked about it a little last week. She mentioned a co-worker who moved away and started sending the office a batch of her famous fudge twice a year. The fudge was such a hit there would be an alert in the office when the fudge arrived in the mail room. And the rush to get some would commence.
She sent a picture and it seemed like old-fashioned fudge to me, but then fudge by its very nature is old fashioned. The ingredients she mentioned made it sound more like our Heavenly Hash, with condensed milk and nuts and marshmallows. But she assured us that all the ingredients were melted into a solid dense chocolate mass. The recipe is below:
Fudge
Mix in large, microwave-safe bowl:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips
2 cups miniature marshmallows
Dash of salt
1 can condensed milk
Microwave 2 or 3 minutes, stir, and heat a few more minutes if needed to stir the mixture smooth.
Stir in:
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Pour into paper-lined 9 x 9 pan. Refrigerate until set. Enjoy!
