I used to call the Midwest small town I grew up in "The Land That Time Forgot," referencing the 1975 drive-in classic of the same title, in which Doug McClure and John McEnery find themselves stranded on an island where time stands still, battling improbable dinosaurs and cave men for survival…
Though the calendar, the whole decade, read 1970-something, a casual traveler passing through my home town might have imagined they'd stumbled on a back lot from the TV show "Happy Days," and in some corners "The Andy Griffith Show," even. The "Flower Power" Sixties, always an east and west coast phenomenon, never much sullied our landlocked Midwest borders, and the colorful "Saturday Night Fever" Seventies were, at this point, mostly a radio thing, and not yet a lifestyle… Picture Fonzy and Barney Fife boogieing together to a driving Disco beat… That was my home town…
There were a few doors you could step through to be transported even further back into the mists of time. One such portal was the dark, somewhat foreboding entrance to Candy Bill's…
There really was a "Bill," and he really did make candy – astonishing confectionary artworks of chocolate, caramel, brittle, toffee, taffy, truffles, and, of course, a dozen flavors of the sweetest, richest, most" fudgiest" fudge a small town kid ever tasted.
But that's not the amazing time travel part. Inside Candy Bill's, it was always 1929… High ceilings covered in ornate copper tiles, shadowy, built in booths made of heavy black mahogany, a solid wood front door so heavy a kid almost couldn't make the jingle bells jingle when he pushed it, and a l-o-o-o-n-g, long bar made of the same dark, polished wood that looked like it had grown up from the ground where it stood and the building had been constructed around it…
Bellied up to that bar, a kid could order a real Cherry Phosphate, a drink long forgotten by the outside world even in 1975, and Candy Bill himself would make it right there in front of you in a tall Coca-Cola glass, an old man frown of concentration on his face as he studiously combined carbonated water, real cherry juice, and a shot of genuine phosphoric acid from a dusty brown bottle…
And did I mention the fudge? Like all the sweet treats at Candy Bill's, the world's best fudge came out of his back room perfect and aromatic and begging you to take it home, and if you were smart, you did. We kids may not have known much about the grownup world, but we knew small miracles like Candy Bill's fudge had to involve secret recipes, dangerous equipment, and impossible feats of culinary daring never to be repeated by the likes of our own most ordinary moms …
Only later in life, as an adult with kids of my own, did I embrace my "inner Candy Bill" and discover just how easy great fudge is to make at home. Here are two quick, easy and decadently delicious 100% vegan fudge recipes. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
8 oz shredded unsweetened coconut
2 tablespoons peanut butter
4 small ripe bananas cut into chunks
1/2 cup cocoa powder
A smidge less than 1/2 cup agave nectar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions:
1. Put all 8 oz. of the shredded coconut in a food processor. Pulse until smooth, about 8 to 12 minutes.
2. Add all the other ingredients and pulse another five minutes or so, until smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into a flat food storage container with a tight lid (Tupperware, etc).
4. Snap the lid on tight, and freeze. Thawed, this fudge tends to lose its firm texture, so always serve right out of the freezer!
Ingredients:
8 oz. or so sweetened dark chocolate – use the sweetest dark chocolate bar you can find that is still vegan
4oz vegan margarine (you can also use Earth Balance buttery sticks for this recipe)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk. Other non-dairy milks work, too, so use what you like best
Directions:
1. In a flat, approximately 6" X 6" microwave safe food storage container with a lid (don't put the lid on yet, but you'll need it later), melt the chocolate and vegan margarine together until gooey and blended. The time this takes will depend on the strength of your microwave oven, so just check frequently and be sure not to burn the chocolate.
2. Sift in the powdered sugar. Add the soy milk. Stir until fully incorporated.
3. Drop the container on the counter a few times to remove any air pockets. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.