"Frango" Fudge

Those of you who live in the Chicago area know that Marshall Fields Christmas candy, Frangos, is legendary. Smooth, melt in your mouth minty chocolate fudge--heavenly.

I stumbled on this recipe by happy chance. I was making regular good old chocolate-with-walnuts fudge. I had the butter, sugar and evaporated milk boiling away on the top of the stove and all the rest of the ingrediants ready to go once I removed the pan from the heat--or so I thought. I had neglected to retrieve my chocolate chips from my baking stash. I pulled down my container of assorted chips and to my amazement, I had no semi sweet chocolate chips. I had every kind of morsel you could imagine: caramel swirl, raspberry swirl, white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, red and green swirled Holiday chips and mint chocolate chips. I had to make a quick decision because a hot pan of sugar and milk was quickly cooling on the stove. I chose the mint chocolate chips. But there was a small problem. The recipe called for a 12 ounce bag and the mint chip bag only had 10 ounces. So, I added 12 milk chocolate Hershey Kisses to make up the difference, left out the nuts, and finished the fudge. And it was a hit. Tom took two or three plates to his office and they disappeared.

Here's the recipe:

3/4 c. margarine or butter (I use unsalted butter)
3 c. sugar
2/3 c. evaporated milk
10 oz. bag Nestles Mint chocolate chips
12 milk chocolate Hershey Kisses
1 7 oz. jar of marshmallow creme
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix butter, sugar and milk in large, heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a full boil, stirring constantly.

Continue boiling and stirring for 5 full minutes over medium heat. (or until candy thermometer reaches 235 degrees). Remove from heat.

Gradually stir in chips and kisses until melted. Add remaining ingrediants and mix well.

Pour into a greased 9X13 pan. Cool and cut into small squares. Makes three pounds.

This is all that's left (well, except the piece I swiped after I took the picture!)