I’m starting off the week with my all-time favorite fudge recipe. This one knocks my socks off every single time, and I make it only once a year. Otherwise, well, I’d never eat anything else.

The flavors in this fudge are incredibly complex and complementary. The process starts with caramelizing smoked almonds (I know!) in butter and brown sugar. By themselves, they’re dynamite. In fudge, I can only describe the effect as mind-blowing.

To really set off the smoky caramel of the almonds, I use Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips as the fudge base. This is not the kind of fudge a 2 year-old will go for, most of the time. I’ll do something lighter and more colorful later this week for that! But this fudge is the perfect dish to bring to a grown-up holiday party. Because the only thing better than eating this fudge is doing so with a glass of champagne in your other hand.

Other than caramelizing the almonds, which is a very easy process, the fudge base for this is made in the microwave. So not only is this an impressive recipe, but it also takes a lot less time than a dish of this caliber would ordinarily cost you. That means you have more time to eat fudge and watch sappy holiday movies. Who wants to stand over a stovetop with a candy thermometer? Not me. Never me!

It’s only the first day of Fudge Week, so there’s more holiday joy to come. Stay tuned for more fun from my bloggy friend Gayle and me, as well as a couple of ideas for how to wrap and present fudge as a gift. We’re here to serve!

Enter my favorite quick recipe, so easy I hesitate to call it a recipe: bark!  Two ingredients, everyone. Get excited!

I love making bark and almost never buy it because really, why? You can customize flavors as you choose, and it’s pretty much the work of a couple of minutes, plus the 30 minutes of required chill time.

There are exceptions, of course. Trader Joe’s makes really good bark, so I love buying that. And Godiva’s chocolate almond bark is a good splurge. But other than that, I’ve been known to kind of huff and turn my nose up at store-bought bark, especially if it has no creative flavor action going on.

It’s with that thought in mind that I made this bark. Trader Joe’s makes a great holiday-edition caramel corn, totally addictive. Some of the popcorn is covered in chocolate, and there are a bunch of nuts in there, too. All kinds. It’s really my crack, if you must know. I buy it and tell myself I’ll only have a bit, and then yeah.

So of course, it made total sense to put a bunch of this addictive substance into bark. Why not? Just imagine Moose Munch in a bark, and that’s what we’re dealing with here. The Trader Joe’s version is pretty much the same thing, and it’s delicious.

This bark can be wrapped up and gifted to people, so think about it as a fantastic holiday season option! And if you can’t get to Trader Joe’s, any caramel corn and nut mixture will do. There’s never a need to buy bark when you can make it so quickly! Try it and enjoy.