Sugar Savvy

Editor’s Note: This is the second of five articles Sugar Savvy will be publishing this week dealing with the delightful topic of fudge.

So we have entered the fabulous “Five Days of Fudge”. Chocolate doesn’t get much more sinful and decadent than fudge, does it? For me fudge was always a summer treat, something I would indulge in while on our family vacations at the beach. I hosted a tree trimming party one Christmas back in high school and planned to wow my guests with homemade fudge. They certainly were not impressed and neither was I. Since then making fudge has always seemed so daunting, and difficult.

I decided in the spirit of “Five Days of Fudge” that I was willing and eager to try my hand at fudge making once again. Surely my culinary skills have grown by leaps and bounds since the wonderful days of my adolescence right? After all, back then I didn’t even know you could possibly need a thermometer for making candy, and I had never heard of “soft ball stage”.

When doing an internet search for fudge recipes one finds pages upon pages of search results, many very similar recipes with slight variations. Some recipes are simple, and some much more complex. You will find some recipes that require cooking and some that do not. So where do you begin?

I chose to start with a basic, traditional cooked fudge recipe. Real, honest and true fudge is cooked, and requires a candy thermometer or an understanding of what it means to cook something until it reaches that soft ball stage that I mentioned before. This is typically reached when the ingredients have boiled and are at a temperature of 234-238 degrees. To do the soft ball test you will need to drop a small amount of the candy into a glass of very cold water. If you can pick up the candy and roll it into a ball which quickly loses its shape, you’re ready to go on to the next step of the recipe.

This recipe was given to me by my grandmother from her recipe collection. I’m sure it has some wonderful history behind it somewhere. Maybe now with my success I’ll develop my own wonderful fudge history, and you will too.

Chocolate Fudge

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add sugar, milk and cocoa to a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring from sides and bottom often. Bring to a boil. When it reaches 234-238 degrees on a candy thermometer or reaches the soft ball stage, remove from heat.

Add vanilla, and butter. Cool until 110 degrees. Stir briskly with wooden spoon until mixture thickens and loses glossiness. Pour into a greased dish. Refrigerate until firm, cut into squares.

*Nuts can be added at same time as vanilla and butter.