Fudge?

[SlowCook66]

Hi,

Newbie here!

I see different fudge recipes made with chocolate and also some made by replacing chocolate by coco powder? Which is the real way ?

Consider these two different fudge recipes:

Recipe #1
Condensed milk
Chocolate chips
Butter

Recipe #2
Condensed milk
Coco powder
Sugar
Butter

Both of them generate a fudge. But which one is really the authentic way of making fudge ?

Thanks

 

[Andy M.]

In the good old days, chocolate chips weren't available so the second recipe is older. However, either will do the trick. Try it both ways to find which tastes better to you. Really, that's what's most important.

 

[SlowCook66]

In the good old days, chocolate chips weren't available so the second recipe is older. However, either will do the trick. Try it both ways to find which tastes better to you. Really, that's what's most important.

Hi Andy, Hey I thank you very much for replying to my question.

If I may ask you, I have a 2nd question.

First, I am using the 2nd recipe (the old one) and I am looking for a hard snap fudge. I am looking to make a fudge where when you press your finger on it with significant force, your finger doesn’t sink in the fudge.

So I have done the recipe but the inside doesn’t look quite smooth as a fudge should look like. It looks more of a dry cookie composition but not crumbly! Actually quite good and tasty.

Here is the recipe:

Powdered Sugar 150g
Corn syrup 1 tbsp
Condensed milk: 130g
Water: 15g
Cocoa powder 30g

While stirring the mixture in the pot I bring all the ingredients (except the Cocoa powder) to 118C, and then I add the Cocoa powder and mix some more.

I was hoping for a more smoother composition. I’m a little confused as to whether I should be stirring the sugars as they heat up to 118C while they boil?? (If I don’t stir them, the bottom of pot burns).

Also once the mixture reaches 118C and add in the Cocoa powder, do I remove the pot from the heat or continue heating it as I mix the Cocoa with the rest of the sugars ?

Anyways a little confused with all this…. I would really appreciate any tip that you can give me !

Thanks so much
Rob

 

[Andy M.]

Hi Andy, Hey I thank you very much for replying to my question.

If I may ask you, I have a 2nd question.

First, I am using the 2nd recipe (the old one) and I am looking for a hard snap fudge. I am looking to make a fudge where when you press your finger on it with significant force, your finger doesn’t sink in the fudge.

So I have done the recipe but the inside doesn’t look quite smooth as a fudge should look like. It looks more of a dry cookie composition but not crumbly! Actually quite good and tasty.

Here is the recipe:

Powdered Sugar 150g
Corn syrup 1 tbsp
Condensed milk: 130g
Water: 15g
Cocoa powder 30g

While stirring the mixture in the pot I bring all the ingredients (except the Cocoa powder) to 118C, and then I add the Cocoa powder and mix some more.

I was hoping for a more smoother composition. I’m a little confused as to whether I should be stirring the sugars as they heat up to 118C while they boil?? (If I don’t stir them, the bottom of pot burns).

Also once the mixture reaches 118C and add in the Cocoa powder, do I remove the pot from the heat or continue heating it as I mix the Cocoa with the rest of the sugars ?

Anyways a little confused with all this…. I would really appreciate any tip that you can give me !

Thanks so much
Rob

Rob, I'm not really an expert on fudge. I'm sure one will respond before long. Welcome to DC.

 

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum!

I had to search, but a while ago, I posted about the cream cheese fudge I always make that is a hit, and some other recipes are here, too:

Fudge And Faux Fudge

Do you have a fudge recipe you love or loath? Post it up; let us know what you think! Fudge is a wonderful thing. Rich, creamy, sweet and addictive but in it's classic form; also a nuisance to make. There are a number of short cut recipes that bypass the standard "cook to a soft ball and then...

www.discusscooking.com

 

[SlowCook66]

Hi Peperhead,

Yeah I saw that thread earlier today, I would be interested in the old fashion recipe but my concern is that will it result in very hard fudge as I described in my post above??

 

[taxlady]

I have made fudge using cocoa rather than chocolate. It turned out just as I would hope a fudge would turn out. However, I like my fudge creamier than it sounds like yours.

Since fudge doesn't need to have a chocolate flavour, I don't think you can say the using chocolate chips or using cocoa is more authentic.

 

[Aunt Bea]

The chocolate fudge that I grew up with didn’t use condensed milk or chocolate chips.

2 cups white sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup whole milk
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced and softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine first four ingredients and cook, stirring constantly to softball stage.
Remove from heat, add remaining ingredients, beat until thick over a pan of ice or snow. Pour onto a buttered plate to set.

The results were unpredictable. Sometimes the fudge was creamy, sometimes the fudge was hard and grainy.

Then we entered the era of better living through chemistry, Mamie Eisenhower’s Million Dollar Fudge, and we were saved!

Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge Recipe | CDKitchen.com

Unleash your inner First Lady with Mamie Eisenhower's Million Dollar Fudge. It's so rich, you might just feel like a part of presidential history with every bite.

www.cdkitchen.com

 

[taxlady]

@Aunt Bea That first recipe that you posted looks like the one I used.

 

[dragnlaw]

I just remember my sisters admonitions for making fudge. If you don't cook it long enough it will be too soft. If you over cook it it will be dry and crumbly.

She always knew the perfect time to stop cooking and just exactly how long to beat it before scooping it into the pan. So you can guess why I don't make fudge...

 

[Aunt Bea]

It wouldn’t be date night without Thelma Lou’s cashew fudge.

Thelma Lou's Cashew Fudge recipe - from the Stirring up Memories Family Cookbook

Thelma Lou's Cashew Fudge recipe is from Stirring up Memories, one of the cookbooks created at FamilyCookbookProject.com. Family cookbooks are an important way to preserve our mealtime traditions for future generations with individual printed recipes or your own professionally printed cookbook.

www.familycookbookproject.com

 

[taxlady]

View attachment 66737

It wouldn’t be date night without Thelma Lou’s cashew fudge.

Thelma Lou's Cashew Fudge recipe - from the Stirring up Memories Family Cookbook

Thelma Lou's Cashew Fudge recipe is from Stirring up Memories, one of the cookbooks created at FamilyCookbookProject.com. Family cookbooks are an important way to preserve our mealtime traditions for future generations with individual printed recipes or your own professionally printed cookbook.

www.familycookbookproject.com

Have you made this fudge? It sounds easy. Does the recipe work well?

 

[SlowCook66]

No I’m having a lot of trouble ! It’s about 50 times I try and it’s one failure after another. I even hired someone from Fiver and still can’t do a hard fudge without the middle looking like a cookie. I don’t want to make regular soft fudges it’s been done and it’s over saturated! Very discouraged

 

[Aunt Bea]

Have you made this fudge? It sounds easy. Does the recipe work well?

It works but it’s more like a super thick frosting than an old fashioned cooked penuche.

We used this recipe.
(Scroll down to the penuche variation.)

Recipe: Fannie Farmer Fudge with Variations (1950's) - Recipelink.com

Fannie Farmer Fudge with Variations (1950's), Desserts, Candy, Chocolate

www.recipelink.com

 

[SlowCook66]

Have you made this fudge? It sounds easy. Does the recipe work well?

I put these ingredients and I try to bring them to 118C sand it never works I always end up burning the bottom of pot even if I go slow ! The last batch I was doing it with very low heat it took 45 min to get to 110C :

Powdered Sugar 150g
Corn syrup 1 tbs
Condensed milk: 100g (130g)
+Evaporated milk: 70g
Cocoa powder 30g
+130g chocolate chips
+1/2 square of hard chocolate
Bring to 118C

 

[dragnlaw]

Have you tried using a double boiler maybe?

 

[SlowCook66]

It seems like as soon as I do it with the cacao the mixture doesn’t get past 104C

 

[SlowCook66]

Cacao doesn’t have the thermal capability of going higher than 104 C or so very difficult to go beyond this so I don’t understand how you guys are making fudge with the cacao included on the mixture to go up to 115C -118C …. I don’t get it ???

 

[SlowCook66]

Have you tried using a double boiler maybe?

If the pot can’t get it to go beyond 104 ish C how will the double boiler do that? No I haven’t tried !

 

[taxlady]

No I’m having a lot of trouble ! It’s about 50 times I try and it’s one failure after another. I even hired someone from Fiver and still can’t do a hard fudge without the middle looking like a cookie. I don’t want to make regular soft fudges it’s been done and it’s over saturated! Very discouraged

I'm too tired to do an internet search at the moment, but I think that what you are calling hard fudge has a different name. I don't think it's called fudge.