Chocolate Fudge-Step by Step

I am a fudge fanatic. I grew up helping my mother make old fashioned whipped fudge every Chirstmas. I can't hardly even stand the other shortcut not really quite fudge confections, you know, the fantasy fudge and the condensed milk fudge, and the melt this and that and call it fudge fudge. The flavor and texture are all wrong.

True fudge is a dying art so I have to share my family recipe every chance I get. Since it's chocolate that greases the wheels of society, I thought I'd start with the chocolate:


The cast of characters:
3 T butter
3 c sugar
1 1/2 C cream
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 T cocoa
2 t vanilla
1/4 c corn syrup
and a dash of salt
Put them all in a 4 quart pot over medium heat. Don't try and squeeze this into a smaller pan; it will boil over and make a huge mess all over your stove. Ask me how I know this.

Pretty soon it will all melt together and look pretty and smooth. Then it will start to boil. When it comes to a rolling boil, that is a boil that you can not stir down, put a snug fitting lid on your pot. Leave the lid on for 3-5 minutes. The lid will capture the steam rising off the candy syrup and wash down the sides of the pot. This is what they call in the candy making business "sweating the pan." It's very, very important. Do not skip the step unless you like fudge with sugar crystals in it instead of perfectly lovely smooth fudge. While you are sweating the pan, rinse your spoon off in the sink. You want to get off any sugar crystals that may be clinging to it. Don't skip this either.

After a few minutes of sweating the pan, take the lid off and begin stirring again. You will also want to put a candy thermometer in the pot at this time. Don't let these intimidate you. It's just a thermometer and we use them because candy follows some very basic laws of chemistry. It changes texture at specific temperatures so if you cook it to the same temperature you get the same results every time. The thermometer lets us measure this temperature exactly so we can get consistent results even without having made a hundred pots of candy.

Cook the syrup to 238 degrees Fahrenheit. This is soft ball stage for those of you who are familiar with the candy stages. When it reaches temp, immediately pull the pot from the stove and pour out the syrup into the bowl from a stand mixer. Only pour out what comes easily; do not scrape out the pot with either the spoon or a spatula. I'm serious. Stop. Leave it there. Your pot should look like this:
See all that candy left in the pot? Let the kids eat it or something. This stuff is the most likely part of the syrup to contain sugar crystals or be cooked to a different temp than the rest of the batch. If either is the case, adding these dregs to the rest of the candy will ruin it.

So then your mixing bowl looks like this:
See how the syrup is thick and starting to form a thick skin on top, clinging to the bowl and all that? Now you add 2 t vanilla. Put the bowl on your mixer and walk away. You're going to let it sit for about an hour or so. You want the syrup to be about 110 degrees. You can use a clean thermometer, but I just test it by holding my hand to the side of the bowl. When it's no longer too hot to rest my hand on the outside of the bowl, it's ready to beat.

Using your mixer beat it on medium speed with the flat beater. If you are using a Kitchen Aid, speed 6 is just right. About five minutes in it will look like this:
See how it's still dark and glossy? It's starting to thicken, but it's still not done.

This is done:

Notice how it's lost it's gloss? It has almost a frosting like consistency at this point. The color has also lightened to a nice milk chocolate. Keep in mind, however, that when you stop the mixer some of the gloss will come back. It should look like this when it's done:

Still a bit glossy and definitely gloopy, but not runny. If you like nuts, now would be a good time to stir in 3/4 of a cup of walnuts or pecans.

Scrape the fudge out into a 8x8x2 baking pan that has been coated with either butter or butter flavored cooking spray. Pat the top smooth. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and push the wrap down so it completely touches the surface of the fudge. Then you have to let it cool. I like to put mine in the fridge because it firms up pretty quickly that way and I can eat it sooner.

When it's firm, cut it and serve. Or sneak it behind everybody's back and tell them it's not ready yet. I won't tell.
Doesn't that look good? The fun part about fudge is there are so many different flavors, all of which can be made with slight changes to this basic recipe. How many flavors? So far I've come up with eight. I'll post those later.

Chocolate Fudge

3 T butter
3 c sugar
1 1/2 C cream
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 T cocoa
1/4 c corn syrup
and a dash of salt
2 t vanilla
3/4 c pecans or walnuts

Combine all except vanilla and nuts in a 4 quart pot. Put a lid on the pot and cook over medium heat until the candy comes to a rolling boil. Let it boil for 2-5 minutes with the lid on. Remove lid and add candy thermometer. Cook and stir until mixture reaches exactly 238 degrees. Pour out into bowl of stand mixer; do not scrape out the pan. Just pour out the candy that comes easily and leave the rest in the pan. Let the mixture sit at room temperature until it reaches about 110 degrees. Add vanilla. Beat with the mixer using the flat paddle on medium speed. When mixture begins to lose it's gloss add nuts, then scrape out into buttered 8x8 baking pan. Let cool until firm. Cut and serve. Makes about 2 lbs.