Happy National Dessert Day

Happy National Dessert Day

Happy National Dessert Day

Today is National Dessert Day. What is your favorite dessert? This is a hard one for me because I have a natural sweet tooth so to pick just one is impossible. But if I must narrow it down to one then it would have to be my family’s famous peanut butter fudge. I do not know if that quite classifies as a dessert but it accompanies a funny story.

When I was a little girl, my Grammie made the BEST peanut butter fudge. It was so creamy and smooth, it literally melted in your mouth. You see, Grammie’s recipes were always top secret.  She would share with you the basic idea of the recipe but the joke amongst the family was Grammie seemed to leave something out so you could not perfect it yourself.

She would make peanut butter fudge for the holidays, but especially at Christmas time. It was not something she made often throughout the year but was special. When she passed away it was said that all of Grammie’s recipes were passed down to her daughter, my Aunt Donna. I knew this had to be true because Aunt Donna carried on the peanut butter fudge tradition, and it tasted just like Grammie’s. Unfortunately, my Aunt Donna grew ill, and she passed away when I was 16 years old.

It was later discovered, though, my aunt had passed my Grammie’s famous peanut butter fudge recipe down to my mom. Once again, it had to be true because my mom’s fudge tasted just like Grammie’s. She too made it during the holidays and sometimes on birthdays as well. Even as an adult my mom would send me peanut butter fudge packages in the mail to assure I got my peanut butter fudge fix each year.

One day I decided I wanted to try my hand at making our family’s peanut butter fudge recipe so I called my mom and asked her if I could have Grammie’s recipe. After all, I was an adult out on my own and, as history went, the recipe had been passed down the family tree.

When I asked my mom for the recipe the phone went silent for a few seconds. I thought for sure she was going to tell me no just because of how top secret it had been. Then my mom chuckled and said to me, “Krystal, you can find the recipe for Grammie’s fudge on the back of the marshmallow fluff container.”

I thought she was joking, but she was not. You see, Grammie’s fudge recipe was not an original recipe of her own or one that had even been passed down to her; she just copied it off the back of a marshmallow fluff container. But don’t you know, I still cannot make peanut butter fudge like Grammie did!