It was a quiet afternoon last year on the Delaware Coast in Bethany Beach – just after Labor Day so most of the summer folks had returned home for the season. My husband and I and a few of our friends had just polished off some amazing soft-shell crab sandwiches (with plenty of Old Bay!) when we found ourselves wandering into The Fudge Factory, a small outpost brimming with dozens of different types of fudge. We were literally kids in a candy store, sampling away and bringing back more peanut butter, praline and maple fudge than the rest of our group back at the condo could handle.

The Chocolate Snowswirl Fudge recipe I’m sharing today – the third and final installment of Homemade Candy Week – adds a swirly layer of marshmallow to the top of classic rich, chocolate and walnut fudge. I photographed this batch nearly two weeks ago and it’s still perfectly creamy in the fridge. I’m looking forward to unloading the remaining pieces on my family in the days to come, as it’s been way to easy to reach in a grab a little bite every time I’ve craved something sweet.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/homemade-candy-week-chocolate-snowswirl-fudge/

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I received the loveliest holiday gift yesterday from a good friend of mine. She knows how much my husband and I enjoy her fabulous smoked paprika-rubbed roast chicken so she typed up and printed out the recipe on a nice card (complete with cute little seahorse cutouts) and attached it with ribbon to a jar of the key ingredient, Spanish pimentón. It was simple, incredibly thoughtful and edible – the perfect type of gift, I think.

I love to give edible gifts year round, but especially during the holidays. I’ve been packaging up the goodies from this week’s Homemade Candy Week into little red and gold tins (see pictured above) I found at the Container Store and gifting them to friends as I see them. While I didn’t make too many extra of the Pecan & Caramel Chocolate Clusters, today’s Milk Chocolate Truffles recipe made plenty for me to enjoy a little “one for me” as I pull together a few of these tins each day. The best part about a basic truffle recipe like this is that you can customize it however you like – rolling them in nuts, adding spices, drizzling more chocolate. I kept mine super simple, with just a dusting of unsweetened cocoa.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/homemade-candy-week-milk-chocolate-truffles/

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Welcome to Homemade Candy Week on Cooking On the Side! I had a blast last weekend trying out recipes for several sweet indulgences and I’m excited to share them with you. Alternatively, I could have deemed this “Chocolate Week” as we’ve got chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. I figured most of you would be pretty all right with that.

First up are Pecan & Caramel Chocolate Clusters. I’m happy to say that these decadent goodies are participating as a Gourmet dessert for Share Our Holiday Table, a seven-day, online progressive dinner series that will help raise funds for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign during the critical holiday period. No Kid Hungry™ is an unprecedented, five-year effort designed to end childhood hunger in America. Especially at this time of year when many of us are gathering together and sharing holiday feasts with one another it’s important to remember that there are many people – children included – who don’ t have enough to eat. I’ve made a donation to the campaign – I hope many of you will join me.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/homemade-candy-week-pecan-caramel-chocolate-clusters/

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I’m secretly  hoping that this will be the year the homemade Mother’s Day gifts start coming. Aren’t they sort of a rite of passage?  Our school classrooms would turn into little workshops this time of year, turning out everything from tissue paper flowers to ceramic ashtrays (Did we seriously make those? I am really dating myself here.). I would be bursting with pride as I presented my mom with my annual creation. And my mom did her very best to convey awe and admiration. That’s good stuff.

If you’re looking for a homemade Mother’s Day gift that’s sure to be a hit, think about pulling together a batch of this Sea-Salted Smoky Almond Chocolate Bark. It’s incredibly simple – just three ingredients – and you can just imagine how it tastes. Whoever discovered that salt brings out amazing flavors in chocolate is my personal hero. The combination of smoky almonds and rich dark chocolate is also striking. In a fabulous way.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2010. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/sea-salted-smoky-almond-chocolate-bark/

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Ever since my sister was in the Camp Fire Girls in first grade and had to sell Almond Roca for their fundraiser I’ve been in love with toffee. I find that buttery crunch to be positively addictive – my hand just keeps grabbing for another “little piece”. At least with Almond Roca there’s that gold foil that you have to contend with which helps to pace your consumption. But when you make your own toffee at home…and there’s a whole entire pan of it sitting in front of you…unwrapped…and it’s your job to break up the pieces…apparently it takes a stronger person than myself to resist.

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© Cooking On the Side, 2009. | Permalink: http://cookingontheside.com/toffee/

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