Fruity Pebbles Fudge Recipe

Momma Told Me: Eat with your eyes.

I'm not a girly girl, per say. I love an excuse to dress up, put on some heels, or just go shopping for a new outfit- but I spend most of my time lounging in a tank top and jeans. I say this because people who meet me in real life often mistake me as an ordinary, quite, tomboy type. Well, that is, ever since my hair stopped rotating colors like the rainbow. (I still keep purple in my hair but it's much more ombre and mainstream than rebellious.) What I'm trying to say, though, is that I don't look like me on the inside, on the outside.

These days you would probably never suspect that I am a color addict.

What does that mean, exactly?

Well, I get as excited about something vibrant and colorful as a jewelry enthusiast might upon seeing a sparkly diamond. My obsession with color, such a universal subject, will distract me in the strangest places, gawking at the most random of things. I drive back around the blog when I see a new piece of graffiti, a freshly painted fire hydrant makes me smile, pretty much anything neon demands a second look, and I will pay more for ordinary things others may consider kitschy just because they are eye catching and please me visually. I am the horrible relative that sends you a rooster made of our brightly painted scrap steel.

It's not as though I recently discovered color.

I've been obsessed ever since I was a young girl- I can remember buying breakfasts cereals I had no desire to eat, simply because I wanted to watch the colors playfully mix in my bowl, and stain my milk strange colors. The best cereal for this, of course, was Fruity Pebbles. The specific brand didn't matter- so long as there was a rainbow of fruit colored flakes I could pour out of a bag or box in a moving rainbow. It drove my mother nuts that I rarely actually did much eating of the cereal, and I often was sent off to school having done little but scoop the colorful mountains up and down with my spoon.

For someone who was such an introvert through her schooling, I found a sense of confidence in being the loudest visually. Though I stood out with my orange backpack, and later hot pink hair, I was one of the softest spoken teenagers on campus. By high school my mother had stopped fighting my alternative style, though I'm fairly sure my father thought this obsession with the visually loud was one step away from sneaking out to all night raves. I can't quite explain it, but colors immediately lift my mood- even better if they're bright, or form some sort of visual rainbow. And high school was definitely one of the most stressful and trying periods of my life so far.

So, as silly as it sounds, when I'm having a junky week, or a month's just not off to a great start, I pull out my most vibrant clothes, put my favorite blanket on the bed, and usually head to the grocery store for some colorful endorphin building ingredients- I'm not really a fruit person- but walking through the produce department puts me in a better mood. (Go ahead, think I'm crazy.) So, one particularly unusually dreary SoCal afternoon I decided some uplifting was in order and I pulled the emergency box of Pebbles out of our cupboard.

I was in a horrible funk and I didn't really feel like doing anything, let alone baking, but the colorful box had already begun to divert my mind and change my mood. I'd make cupcakes before, and crispy cereal treats, with this rainbow cereal- recipes in which the colors are preserved and not muddled in mixing or blending are rare. But there was a bag of Ghirardelli white morsels on the counter and it didn't take long to find the direction I should go- Pebbles Fudge.

Now, I'm well aware that many people will find this a delightfully colorful, but ultimately unappealing dessert selection. Pebbles have a wrap for being a guilty pleasure 'childish' treat- and white chocolate fudge is less common. But, if you happen to be a hardcore kid at heart- this is the recipe to tickle all the right senses. And it's hard not to feel great when you're playing with a rainbow of little sugar flakes. It certainly did the trick for me!

What Daughter Says: Just taking in the sight of colorful objects and scenes is enough to satisfy my soul. It's hard not to smile when a rainbow's present.

Fruity Pebbles Fudge

***Click here for printable Fruity Pebbles Fudge recipe

Ingredients:

12oz White Chocolate Morsels

8oz Cream Cheese, Room Temperature

4 1/2 C Powdered Sugar

1 TSP Vanilla Extract

2 TBS Heavy Cream

2 C Fruity Pebbles, Divided

Directions:

1. Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, heavy cream and vanilla until smooth.

3. In a double broiler melt chocolate morsels.

4. Pour melted chocolate onto cream cheese mixture and combine until evenly incorporated. 

5. Mix on low, adding approximately 1 1/2 C Fruity Pebbles, until well combined.

6. Press mixture into parchment lined pan and top with remaining Fruity Pebbles.

7. Chill for 1-2 hours, or until set. Cut into cubes and serve chilled.