Alton Brown's PB Fudge - would work just as well with almond or cashew butter. Friend did it with almond butter and it was amazing! No dairy, so no problems there. FYI, a small amt of cornstarch is added to powdered sugar. It keeps it from caking. If you have problems with corn, you CAN make your own powdered sugar. Now I have only done it once, and that was to see if it would work, in my opinion it is way too much work even for me. Anyway, you put the steel blade in your food processor, or you set up your blender, and you put a small amt of sugar in it, enough so it won't all just sit at the edges, will take trial and error to figure the right amt for your machine. Run the machine on high until you get the texture you want. This is where the food processor tendency to pulverize things into the teensiest particles possible comes in handy. I don't expect ANY of you to do this, but I do know that some people have real problems with corn so i wanted to toss it out. You can add arrowroot powder, which you can find online or in health food stores, to do what cornstarch does if you need that. (and if you have no dairy or corn issues, adding a teaspoon per cup of heavy cream as you whip the cream will stabilize the cream and make it not so fragile and it iwll last a lot longer if you need to make a recipe a day or so ahead. Sure beats paying $1 or so for a tiny packet of "stabilizer" for whipped cream - because that is just a tiny high rent packet of cornstarch and preservatives!)
Anyway, back to the PB fudge,
8 oz butter (I use margarine sometimes, not a huge flavor issue esp if sending it to a school/kid party) and 1 cup peanut butter - put in 4 qt microwave safe bowl and cover iwth plastic wrap. Nuke for 2 min on high, stir, nuke for 2 more minutes. Add 1tsp vanilla and 1 pound powdered sugar, stir until combined with a wooden spoon. It will become hard to stir and lose its sheen. Spread into buttered 8x8 pan lined with parchment paper (be sure to butter the top side of the parchment/waxed paper). Refrigerate until set, cut into pieces and store in airtight container. Does not have to be refrigerated.
If you have a cake or cookies, etc... and want a peanut butter glaze, you can take this fudge, any time after the sugar is mixed in, warm it in the microwave until liquid, and pour it on. It is also awesome swirled into brownie batter or with chocolate cheesecake batter. Though with choc cheesecake I like to do a thin layer of the fudge on the top, then garnish with chocolate shavings or mini chips - just looks way awesome.
Janet, my grandfather was the all time king of divinity makers. I hated divinity as a kid - except his. He left the nuts out of a bit of it for me sometimes, and that made it even better. It was one of a very very few things I would eat that had nuts in it. Not sure if I have that recipe or my mom does, but when I find it I will post it. might take some time - Jess got into my recipe box and not all is there - grrrrr... These were recipes I treasured because they were in my gparents' hands, gpa's, gma's and the gma who died before I was born's (mom's biomom). So it was all I had.
