Instant Icing! 1 tool, 1 dish, 3 ingredients. Mmmm... butter-fudge.

Not long ago I found myself stuck - I needed to consume more butter, more egg yolks, and wanted something snacky. You know, for when you wander in the kitchen for the hundreth time and don't really need a meal yet, but just want to nibble a little bit. You stare into the mounds of leftovers in the fridge and come to the conclusion that there is certainly nothing to eat. So you'll just have a few spoonfuls of fudge and try again later.

Jello has been our mainstay of healthy-yet-snacky stomach stabilization, and now this convenient fudge recipe has become our second fix.

And this is the best part - you only need to dirty one dish and one utensil. Really? Fudge and no dishes? Why thank you.

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter (if unsalted, a little salt brings out the sweetness, salted tastes fine too)
1-2 egg yolks (can include egg white if desired, but there is no cooking involved)
a tsp or so of honey.

And here is the trick:

In a small glass dish (such as those 2 cups bowls you didn't have a use for?) warm your butter to just above room temp - I put my toaster oven on a low temp and soften the butter that way - you don't want it melted, but you also don't want it too firm. Probably in the summer, room temp will be plenty soft.

Then add your egg yolks and honey.

And whip! I usually use a butter knife, since it does cut the butter off my tray easier, but both a spoon and a fork work too. Just keep whipping it. You want to get air into it, and emulsify the egg yolk. It will look like it's not working for a little while, and then all of a sudden it becomes smooth and soft.

And now lick a little bit. Mmmm, icing. You have now made buttercream icing, and it was easy peasy. And yes, it is quite yellow - yellow yolks and yellow butter!

I sometimes dress this up with unsweetened chocolate (1 oz works well, sweetened chocolate seems to make this gritty) or just vanilla.

Once in the fridge, this firms up like fudge. Such that my daughter calls this "butter-fudge!" And I'm quite happy to make it a bedtime snack. On GAPS intro, we use this a blood sugar stabilizer - I figure it's just a step up from the honey-butter Dr. NCM mentions.

It also comes in handy for icing cupcakes, but admit it, you like to lick icing out of the tub anyway.