So. I received Nigella’s new book for Christmas, my mum got the hint. This is the first thing I have cooked from it and it is so good. I liked the look of this recipe as it seemed really simple and had a nice short ingredients list, there can be too much on a recipe list sometimes, it just puts me off. But this was perfect.

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

• 350g dark chocolate (min 70 % cocoa solids) chopped
• 1 x 397g can of condensed milk
• 30g butter
• pinch of salt
• 150g pistachios (next time I’m going to try walnuts)

1. Put the chocolate, condensed milk, butter and salt into a pan over a low heat.
2. Smash up the nuts in a freezer bag leaving a mixture of small and large pieces.
3. Take off the heat and stir in the nuts.
4. Pour the fudge into a foil tray about 23cm square. (or just pour and spread onto greaseproof paper in a tray, it doesn’t spread thinly so it works just fine).
5. Let the fudge cool then refrigerate until set. I found a couple of hours as it should be nice and firm when you cut it.

You need to store this in the fridge, Nigella says you can also freeze this and eat straight from the freezer, it didn’t get as far as my freezer, we ate it all over the weekend. This is the sort of thing that to me, looked like a disaster until it set, then when I cut it, it looked perfect. The pistachios looked so beautiful against the chocolate fudge and the textile designer in me kept taking photos and thinking “what lovely patterns” I thought; could I incorporate this into a design? Then I stopped thinking and ate more fudge. yumyumyum.