Marshmallow Fudge Cookies

Starrynews's Note:

Another one of my great-grandmother's traditional Christmas cookie recipes, fondly recalled by the family as the "Shoebox Cookies," because that is how she packed them. This one took the longest for me to figure out how to make it. This takes some time to prepare, but is well worth it. It also has elements of a candy-making recipe in it, so I am guessing that if you are an experienced candy-maker, then you are going to be able to finish it faster than I - this is the only kind of candy making recipe that requires knowledge about "soft boil stage" that I have used so far. So it took me about an hour to finally perfect it the first few times, so that is what I'm using for the prep time!! Cooking time is the mimimum time needed for the cookies to chill. I usually leave them in overnight, though.

• Total Time: 3 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 48

Yield: 3.0 dozen

• 2 cups small marshmallows , diced
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup nuts , finely chopped
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 (1 ounce) unsweetened chocolate squares (Baker's)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½-1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Combine diced marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs, and nuts in a medium bowl and mix well.
2. Combine sugar, whole milk, unsweetened chocolate, and salt in a medium pot on the stove and boil to soft ball stage, watching for sticking and stirring frequently. (This is the tricky part -- you can't leave it- it can either stick or boil over).
3. Gradually increase heat, stirring constantly. You are looking for a thick consistency and have to keep moving the heat up and down while stirring to try to reach soft ball stage. (If you don't make candy --- I don't, so I had to research this a bit --- and don't know what that means, here is how to do the soft ball test: have a bowl of cold water ready next to your stove. Drop a small amount of the mixture into the cold water to see if a ball forms. Once one does, you can remove the mixture from heat).
4. Cool second mixture and add 1 t vanilla and 2 T butter. Mix well.
5. Pour the sugar mixture into the bowl containing the marshmallow mixture, and mix well.
6. Pack into a greased 9x13" pan and cool in fridge. Chill until firm.
7. Cut into squares and toss in powdered sugar.

Reviews

[Sydney Mike]

Made these several days ago for my other half to take to work & share, but not before I'd set aside a handful of them just for myself ~ Tasty little buggers, these! I had several with the powdered sugar coating but do prefer them without that addition! Still, there were none left by noontime! [Tagged, made & reviewed as a recipenap in the Vegetarian/Vegan Recipe Swap 16]