The Indulgent Dessert Alton Brown Makes In The Microwave

If there's anyone you can trust for a time-saving hack or a kitchen trick that'll actually work, it's food-science-loving cook Alton Brown. From achieving perfectly popped popcorn to the creamiest scrambled eggs, it seems this seasoned chef has a pro tip for just about everything; and that certainly includes dessert. Welcome to the easiest, quickest, most mess-free way to make one of your favorite indulgent treats: fudge. Peanut butter fudge, to be exact, because who says fudge has to be chocolate? Brown's recipe, which first appeared in Season 7 of his show "Good Eats," only requires four ingredients, ten minutes, and two pieces of cookware to make.

It's very on brand for Brown to take a would-be time-consuming and difficult process and cheat it with the microwave, ultimately creating what he calls "a darn nice fudge-like candy" — with a fraction of the effort. If you love fudge (or you're just a big fan of peanut butter), try this at home.

The recipe seems simple enough, but in a YouTube video, Brown shows us just how easy it is to make this delicious dessert. You'll need only four ingredients: butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and peanut butter (Brown votes for Jif, but says you can use any smooth brand of peanut butter as long as it's not the natural kind).

The first thing you'll do is put your butter and peanut butter in a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and poke a couple of holes on top so the air can be released. Microwave on high for two minutes, then stir to combine and pop it back in for another two minutes. Next, you'll add your powdered sugar and mix it in while it's hot, along with the vanilla extract. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens up and becomes homogeneous.

You'll need a greased square pan with a piece of parchment paper that's long enough to fold over the sides. Dump the mixture in and level it out, folding the parchment paper over the top of the fudge to keep the surface smooth. Let it chill in the fridge for two hours, then cut it up and enjoy your homemade candy.

One of the many things you might learn from Alton Brown is that the microwave isn't just for reheating that leftover spaghetti — there's so much more this tiny machine can do, and Brown has a whole arsenal of microwave cheats.

There are plenty of things you'd normally cook on the stovetop or in the oven that Brown loves to zap in the microwave to save tons of time and effort, and some may surprise you. Who knew you could toast pine nuts in the microwave? And next time you need to temper chocolate, skip the stove and use your microwave instead for perfect melting.

Ever wanted to make your own apple sauce? You can do that in the microwave, too. Brown's apple sauce recipe nukes ingredients like apples, apple juice, butter, honey, and cinnamon for 10 minutes, and then blends them together. And if you're a chocolate fan, try his Midnight Mug Cake, which uses the microwave to create a double-chocolate, souffle-like dessert for two in just fifteen minutes.