Cherry Polka Dot Fudge













3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can (300 mL) sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped glace cherries
1/2 cup mini marshmallows

1. Melt chocolate chips with condensed milk.  Remove from heat.  Stir in vanilla, cherries and marshmallows.
2. Spread evenly in parchment paper lined 8" square pan.  Chill 4 hours or until firm.
3. Remove from pan and peel off paper.  Cut into squares.

Tips/Trick/Notes

Out of all the fudges I tried this season, this one has to have been the sweetest and also the heaviest.   At the time that I did this recipe I could not find "glace cherries" anywhere, so I was recommended to use maraschino cherries.  I had no idea what a glace cherry or an maraschino cherry were, so I looked it up online.  For anyone else who would like to know, the answer is below!

Another note for this recipe, I recommend allowing the chocolate/milk mixture to cool slightly before adding the marshmallows.  When added right away as the recipe calls for; a lot of the marshmallows melted and then were just mixed into the fudge.

Glace and Maraschino Cherries:
A maraschino cherry is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann, Rainier, or Gold varieties. The cherries are first preserved in a brine solution (usually sulfur dioxide) or alcohol, then soaked in a suspension of food coloring, sugar syrup, artificial and natural flavors, and other components.

Further steps along this process make GLACE and crystallized cherries; after soaking, the cherries are drained and then soaked in glucose and air-dried, producing glace cherries; a further stage involves another soaking in glucose which coats them with sugar, creating crystallized cherries.

The picture seen above is an actual picture I took of my completed fudge, it is not taken from the internet or played with in anyway.