Let there be fudge.
Every year around this time I delight in gathering up my tattered recipe cards to prepare for the annual festival known as the BG Christmas Candy Marathon. My recipes have all been passed down from elders save for the chocolate one that’s reliably printed on the back of the Marshmallow Fluff tub.
My family members have learned to leave a wide berth while I mess about the kitchen festooned in my cooking pajamas alternately whistling along to chipmunk-free holiday music on NPR and swearing.
See, unlike many other kinds of cooking, making candy is tricky, especially if you don’t do it every day. It’s about chemistry (and probably physics) and as such, requires a lot more precision than say, tuna salad.
Relative humidity and minding the cooking temperature can impact the success of your efforts. Much like making jam, you’ve got to get a lot right to get things to harden with proper texture. (Hence the swearing.)
Most years I make three kinds of fudge: Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Brown Sugar. God knows there are lots of others, but these three, (particularly with variations) seem to satisfy.
I start with the Peanut Butter since it’s really foolproof and always delicious. Good peanut butter, good butter, salt, vanilla and confectionery sugar are the only ingredients. The only cooking required is butter melting which can be done in the microwave oven.
I often top my Peanut Butter Fudge with a blend of Maldon salt and roughly chopped dry roasted peanuts. You could also top with a thin layer of melted chocolate for a peanut butter cup effect.
Next, I get out the heavy Le Crueset Dutch oven and make a double batch of chocolate. While this one requires stirring and watching, it’s reasonably foolproof, too since the addition of Fluff eliminates a lot of potential melt to recrystallization (aka “fudging”) problems.
I usually make a double batch that makes four pans. I’ll pour out two pans of plain fudge then mix in nuts or even espresso powder to the rest for a taste and texture variation. I usually top the fudge with Maldon or crushed peppermint candies or toasted pecans. The espresso version is nice topped with chocolate covered coffee bean candy.
There are several pro tips I’ve learned over the years that make fudge a lot easier. The first is the size and weight of the vessel you cook in. (Big and heavy wins the day.) The second is employment of a very good and accurate candy thermometer. I use an instant read “Thermo-Pen.” A stout wooden spoon and 8x8 pans in steel or glass lined with a hammock of buttered parchment complete the helpful equipment list.
The magic number in candy making — at least for fudge, is 338 degrees F. At this temperature, also known as “soft ball,” the simmering liquid goo will have sufficiently melted and transformed from crystals of sugar, gobs of fat and dairy to allow the mixture, as it cools and is beaten till your arms fall off to harden into creamy, dreamy melt-in-the-mouth confectionery perfection. Or not. (See swearing, above.)
No candy in my admittedly limited repertoire is more finicky than Brown Sugar. Some people call it Penuche, but we French Canadians stick with “Brown Sugar.” This particular recipe comes from my Grandmother Garrand and was my father’s favorite. I will make it always. For him. While singing “Satin Doll,” his favorite song.
This fudge requires an eagle eye on the thermometer both in reaching temperature and cooling, after the addition of butter and vanilla to exactly 110 degrees F. at which point you beat until it “loses its gloss.” What ever that means. Typically, I beat till I can’t beat anymore and call it good (or call in the reinforcements.) The more the cooked, cooled fudge is beaten, the creamier it will be.
I will confess my brown sugar fudge efforts, more than once, have been re-merchandised as “caramel sauce.” (With swearing.) But when all goes well, brown sugar fudge is nirvana.
Here are two recipes for fudge. You can get the chocolate fudge version on the back of every Fluff container. For those not in New England where Fluff is stocked at every supermarket, you can get Fluff online at Amazon or Walmart. When choosing chocolate, I like good old Nestlé’s toll house chips. Fancier folk might upgrade with Guittard dark chocolate chips for a more profound chocolate taste. I suppose white chocolate chips could be used as well. If so, I’d up the vanilla to add more taste.
Aunt Maggie’s Peanut Butter Fudge
Makes 1 - 8 x 8 pan
Equipment
Large microwave safe bowl
Big wooden spoon
8 x 8 pan buttered and lined with parchment paper hammock
Ingredients
1 1/2 sticks Butter
1 14-16 oz.jar creamy peanut butter
1 t. Salt
1 T. Vanilla
1 C. Confectionery Sugar
Method
Melt butter in microwave
Stir in vanilla, salt, peanut butter and sugar.
Press mixture into parchment-lined pan.
Top with 1/4 cup roughly chopped dry roasted peanuts.
Sprinkle with Maldon finishing salt.
Allow to harden for an hour or two.
Cut into squares. Keep in airtight container.
Grandma’s Brown Sugar Fudge
Makes 2 - 8 x 8 pans
Equipment
Large cast iron Dutch oven
Instant read high temperature capable candy thermometer
Big wooden spoon
2 - 8 x 8 pans lined with parchment
Ingredients
12 T. Butter
4 Pounds Brown Sugar
3/4 C. Light Corn Syrup
1 t. Salt
1 T. Vanilla
2 - 12 oz. cans full fat evaporated milk
Method
In large, heavy pan, combine sugar, evaporated milk, salt and corn syrup.
Cook over medium heat stirring until sugar dissolves.
Bring to boil and cook till 238 Degrees F.
Remove from heat, add butter but DON’T Stir!
Cool to 110 Degrees F. Stir in vanilla.
Beat until mixture “loses its gloss”
Pour into 2 - 8 x 8 pans lined with parchment.
Allow to cool an hour or two and score into cubes.
Fully harden (over night) and cut into squares. Keep in airtight container.
