Your favorite fudge recipes, please?
September 25, 2017 4:13 PM   Subscribe

Fudge. It sounds like something I should learn to make. I've seen this previously, and will certainly try the Fannie Farmer version, but I'd love to try YOUR family recipe if you're willing to share it. Thanks!
posted by MonkeyToes to Food & Drink (18 answers total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've made this one dozens of times:

http://ieattrees.com/vegan-fudge/

Sprinkling a handful of very coarsely ground smoked salt on top is optional but highly encouraged.
posted by paulcole at 4:23 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


2 of those 12oz bags of semi sweet chocolate chips
1oz unsweetened baker's chocolate
2 cans sweetened condensed milk.


Put in bowl, zap in microwave until melted, mix well, and let set.

Best. Fudge. Ever.
posted by astapasta24 at 4:24 PM on September 25, 2017 [5 favorites]


My family has always used the recipe for Fantasy Fudge on the label of Kraft Marshmallow Cream but apparently the new recipe is not as good as the old one. It's our favorite, we're from Texas, so pecans of course.
posted by Grumpy old geek at 4:52 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


At some point in life I arrived to the same conclusion. So far in addition to the recipes from the link you quoted (Fannie Farmer Fudge was very good) I tried these two:

Buckeye Fudge (on a crumbly side of fudge spectrum)
Caramel Coffee Fudge (on a melty side of the same spectrum)
posted by ringu0 at 4:52 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


3 Cups semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Cup butter
4-1/2 Cups sugar
1- 7 oz. jar marshmallow cream
1 can evaporated milk
2 Tblsp. vanilla
1-2 Cups chopped nuts (macadamia nuts are excellent)

Put chocolate chips, butter, and marshmallow cream in a large bowl. Set aside. In heavy dutch oven, bring milk and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a full rolling boil. Continue stirring frequently for exactly 8 minutes. Pour hot mixture over ingredients in bowl. Stir until well mixed, then beat with an electric mixer until fudge begins to hold its shape. Beat in vanilla. Stir in nuts. Pour fudge into a buttered 13″ x 9″ pan and refrigerate until solid.

Note - I don't have a heavy dutch oven. I just use a normal aluminium, pan. It works fine but stay close as it can boil over into a sticky mess very quickly.

Edit - not MY family recipe. My mom made the normal stuff from the back of the Marshmallow fluff bottle. This came from an Internet friend I've never met in real life.
posted by COD at 5:19 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


This recipe is very easy and good. It is not as good as the old-fashioned fudge but close.

Chocolate Fudge
3 c chocolate chips (1/2 milk and 1/2 semi-sweet)
14 oz condensed milk
1/4 c butter (1/2 stick)

Melt gently in microwave without overheating, mix, scrape into an 8x8 dish. Chill.

Alton Brown Peanut Butter Fudge
8 ounces unsalted butter
1 cup smooth peanut butter (a natural brand that does not contain sugar, the peanut flavor must be good for the fudge to be good)
Melt gently in microwave, then add:
1 lb powdered sugar
Mix, scrape into 8x8 dish. Chill.

If perfect pieces are important, line the dish with parchment or wax paper so it covers the bottom and hangs over two sides, then use the sides to pull the whole piece of fudge out at the end.

Bonus Recipe
Layer the peanut butter and chocolate fudge in a 9x13 dish!
posted by RoadScholar at 5:32 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


I thought the recipe my mother used came straight out of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, but it must not have. this is how it goes --

2 cups of sugar to a little less than 1 cup of cream. but you can also use milk or half-and-half or a combination of any of those. probably should.

2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. you can use the fanciest kind you want, but regular baker's chocolate is great.

a pinch of salt. technically an 8th of a teaspoon, or maybe a quarter. just some salt, you know. a bit.

a tablespoon or two of corn syrup. the point of this is to keep the sugar from crystallizing when you don't want it to, but I stopped bothering with it when I moved out of a house that had corn syrup in the kitchen cabinets. use it the first time as a safeguard if you've never made candy before, maybe. I'm still not totally sure it does anything but it is traditional.

a little bit of butter. I think one tablespoon? you can leave this out as well, especially if you use cream and not milk.

some vanilla. a teaspoon, or whatever. more if you're drunk and making candy at midnight. do not measure, that is not the way.

PROCESS: put the sugar and the cream or milk and the salt and chocolate in a big copper saucepan. make sure it is a big one. make sure you are fully clothed so that you don't get boiling sugar on you. there is no reason for this to ever happen but sometimes it does.

start with low heat and stir a bunch with a wooden spoon until the chocolate melts and the sugar dissolves. don't leave it alone too long, you don't want anything burning and sticking. the chocolate may do that thing where it looks like it's melting into separate flecks and not really incorporating into the liquid, but it's fine. increase the heat to medium-high and cook it to 237 degrees. If you have a candy thermometer you can use it, but it's very easy to recognize the right stage by eye after you've done it a few times -- it starts bubbling in this seething cross-hatchy kind of way. even if you have a thermometer, test it as follows: put some ice in a glass of water and drop a little bit into it. when it is at the right stage, it will cohere in a soft ball and come out again intact and not too liquid. don't cook it too long or it will go past this stage into the thready glass-like caramel stage. you can still eat it but it's different.

once this happens, turn off the heat, remove from the burner. do not touch it or stir it AT ALL after it subsides from boiling, it will die. (it turns into sugary sand if you poke it too much before it cools.) wait until you can touch the bottom of the saucepan without burning yourself, but don't let it get cold. add the butter if you want (it will melt on contact), and the vanilla. beat the fuck out of it with the wooden spoon. if you care about presentation, there is a moment right as it turns, when it changes color but hasn't solidified yet, when you can pour it onto a platter or whatever. but I never bother with that. just punish it with the wooden spoon until your arm burns. when it's done, you'll know. doesn't take as long as beating egg whites or even whipping cream.

you can mess around with this if you want to use different kinds of sugar or flavorings or leave out inessentials as indicated, but do not put marshmallows or sweetened chocolate or pre-sweetened milk in it unless it's for Science and not for pleasure. you can also mess around with the sugar to milk/cream ratio a bit if you want to change the texture or have it be frosting. if you fuck it up by putting too much milk in, you can fix it to a certain extent by boiling it longer. but don't do that. you can also increase the chocolate-to-sugar ratio if you want it to be a high-class dark chocolate fudge or if you don't like to feel like you're eating a cavity. but it won't be right.

the end
posted by queenofbithynia at 5:42 PM on September 25, 2017 [7 favorites]


(you're supposed to stop stirring once it starts really boiling, but I always stir a bit now and then throughout the whole process because I get nervous about it burning.

also, use half brown sugar and half white sugar sometimes, it makes it sophisticated. also you can make maple sugar candy by just following the exact same process step by step, except the ingredient list for that is: maple syrup. that's all.)
posted by queenofbithynia at 5:54 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


This is a really foolproof recipe. It says "Caramel Fudge" but you can use dark chocolate and get chocolate fudge instead. Or add whisky (no more than 1 Tbsp, and slightly increase the chocolate quantities too or it won't set properly) for a whisky fudge. I sometimes do one batch of white and one of chocolate and swirl them.

That one makes a smooth creamy fudge. I prefer my fudge slightly grainy and the NZ Edmond's Cookbook Russian Fudge recipe is perfect for that.
posted by lollusc at 7:04 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


Also here are some hard-learned principles about fudge-making:

For a traditional fudge, you are looking for a physical reaction that takes place from heating and then whipping the sugar. So getting to the exact temperature and then beating it for long enough are absolutely key and the fudge will fail if you get either of these wrong. Common failure modes are not setting up because you didn't get it hot enough or beat it long enough (in which case you still usually have a good ice cream topping), or becoming too hard and brittle instead of creamy, because you boiled it too long (in which case it's still tasty, just not very fudge-like). The former is more common than the latter, because the amount of butter and cream and similar things in most modern recipes make it difficult to over-boil past the soft-ball stage without burning anyway. So the main thing is to leave it boiling for long enough without burning (stir gently but frequently in a pattern that scrapes the whole saucepan base). I have never owned a candy thermometer and after a few years I got good at stopping the fudge at exactly the right time anyway, but I'm sure a thermometer would help a lot when you are starting out.

In terms of beating the fudge, I like to keep beating until I see fudge actually forming on the sides of the saucepan, and the wrinkles in the fudge caused by the beater aren't disappearing very quickly. Then you only have about 30 seconds to scrape it into the pan before it sets in the pot.

Less common failure modes include crystalising into something weird in the saucepan because you stirred it too much while boiling (at which point you have to scrap it and start again), or burning (not stirring enough, or boiling too long). Usually you notice it starting to burn and then it's still rescuable.

Anyway, many of the recipes above are ways to avoid having these things happen, but it does mean that you don't quite get a traditional fudge. Basically, if most of the ingredients in your fudge are solid at room temperature, you don't need to boil and whip until reactions cause the sugar syrup to solidify. So including large amounts of chocolate, butter, peanut butter, marshmallow fluff, etc, are all ways to make sure that no matter what, you'll end up with a solid fudge. And then you don't have to boil it much at all. The less liquid that goes into your initial recipe, the easier it's going to be to get right.

Of the examples I gave, the first one is foolproof because there is so much solid stuff in there - the chocolate really makes it set up even if you don't quite get everything else right. The second one is much harder (but I find it a better texture).

The recipe someone gave above for chocolate + condensed milk melted in the microwave is super duper foolproof because those two ingredients average out to about a fudge consistency anyway. You are basically making ganache.
posted by lollusc at 7:28 PM on September 25, 2017 [4 favorites]


Oh, one more comment. In that Caramel Fudge recipe, you can skip the golden syrup or replace it with something like honey, corn syrup, maple syrup etc. You can also skip the nuts. I have never actually tried it with nuts since I never have any in the house. And just use normal white or brown sugar, and normal chocolate of your favourite variety. There is no special benefit in using the brands or varieties they name in the recipe.
posted by lollusc at 7:44 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


My family's favorite is Four Minute Fudge. It's way too much sugar for me now, but back in the day...anyway, take
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 squares unsweetened chocolate
  • 1 scant cup milk (1 cup less 1 tablespoon)
  • butter the size of an egg
  • pinch salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine sugar, chocolate, milk, salt and butter and bring to a boil. Boil hard for 4 minutes after it comes to a boil. Start counting as soon as the whole surface of the fudge is boiling furiously. Beat all the time. Remove from fire, add vanilla and continue beating until smooth and heavy. Pour into buttered pan to cool.
More info at the link.
posted by Rash at 9:00 PM on September 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


My favorite fudge recipe is just a simple chocolate fudge.
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, 3 cups mini marshmallows, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and 1 cup walnuts, chopped.
1. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan; line with 2 crisscrossed pieces of parchment paper, leaving an overhang. Butter paper. In a large saucepan, combine butter, marshmallows, sugar, cream, and salt; cook over medium, stirring occasionally, until marshmallows are melted, 8 to 10 minutes. Off heat, stir in vanilla, chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup walnuts until chocolate is melted. Pour fudge into prepared pan, and smooth top; sprinkle with remaining walnuts. Let cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate until set, about 1 hour. Using overhang, lift fudge onto a cutting board; cut into squares. Enjoy!
posted by reekbeek12 at 9:43 PM on September 25, 2017 [2 favorites]


I have made this recipe for caramel fudge many times:

Ingredients

1 x 397g can condensed milk
80g unsalted butter
150g soft, light brown sugar
One whole vanilla pod
1 pinch sea salt

Method

Line a 20cm square tin with baking parchment. Place a glass of ice-cold water nearby, which you will use later to test the fudge.

In a large, non-stick, wide-bottomed pan, add the condensed milk, butter and soft brown sugar. Slice the vanilla pod in half lengthways, and use the tip of a knife to scrape out the seeds. Add the vanilla seeds to the mixture.

Melt these ingredients over a medium heat, using a wooden spoon to stir until the sugar has dissolved. Make sure the sugar doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan – if it does, turn down your heat a touch.

Next, carefully bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Take care because the mixture will be extremely hot. Stir it constantly for around ten minutes.

Test the fudge by dropping a small amount of the mixture into the cold water. You are looking for the fudge to drop to the bottom of the glass and form a round tear shape or ball. This is called the soft ball stage. If you have a thermometer, the mixture should have reached 113ºC (236ºF).

Take the pan off the heat, add a good pinch of sea salt (about half a teaspoon) and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Then, using the wooden spoon again, stir the mixture vigorously until it begins to firm up a little – for about five to eight minutes.

Very carefully, pour the mixture into your lined tin and smooth out with the back of a metal spoon. Sprinkle over your chosen toppings and push them down into the fudge slightly.

Leave the fudge to cool at room temperature for a couple of hours, and then chop into pieces using a sharp knife.
posted by Polychrome at 4:48 AM on September 26, 2017 [3 favorites]


I've had this recipe for Fireball Fudge bookmarked for ages but haven't gotten around to making it yet.
posted by Polychrome at 4:49 AM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: You guys--thank you! Keep the suggestions coming. I realize now that I am looking for a creamy smooth fudge (it's a Proustian thing, in search of lost recipe from a now-deceased candy-maker). The suggestions on process are helpful, and I appreciate those too!
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:38 AM on September 26, 2017


I make Kahlua Fudge every Christmas. Very smooth texture, has a nice taste with a bit of Kahlua.
posted by CathyG at 11:32 AM on September 26, 2017 [2 favorites]


I've had this recipe for Fireball Fudge bookmarked for ages but haven't gotten around to making it yet.

Tried it last weekend, and I think it was an amazing recipe. The flavor and bite of cinnamon whisky are subtle, yet very much there.
posted by ringu0 at 10:56 AM on October 10, 2017


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