Today I attempted my first batch of fudge from scratch. Fudge is a treat that is cheap in ingredients, but expensive in time. Fortunately it is quite easy to read while standing next to the stove and stirring for 20 minutes. Stirring is also a task that can be handed off to older children. And at the end of that effort is fudgy goodness that you’ve actually worked for.
In theory there is fudgy goodness. What I ended up with was fudgy crumbles. It tastes just like fudge, in powder form. It turns out that the thermometer I used is off by about 10 degrees. I cooked the fudge too long. Fortunately I can think of dozens of yummy uses for fudge powder. I may even make some more on purpose sometime. I’ll definitely be attempting fudge again so that I can perfect my technique.
You can make fabulous ice cream with the mistakes. Just add to your favorite vanilla recipe. 🙂
When I was in middle school, I learned an interesting recipe for fudge… I haven’t tried it in years.
Basically, you take an 8 oz can of evaporated milk, a regular-sized bag of chocolate chips, and melt the chocolate chips in a pan, then stir in the evaporated milk. Pour into a pan, refridgerate.
I seem to recall it turning out quite well – if a bit gooey when it gets back to room temperature. Not quite from scratch, but very easy to do…
Indeed – that goes GREAT with vanilla ice cream, and a smash of liquid NesQuik, or real chocolate sauce… though the latter is far more expensive. The powdered fudge, however, is an excellent sprinkle toping.
Or you could bake it into something, if you’re so inclined…
go to http://www.archive.org and search for Skaarup’s Fudge Lessons. The man has detailed pages for everything that can go wrong when making fudge and how to fix it. Plus he’s got dozens of fudge recipes. Unfortnately his site is gone so the only access to it is via archive.org. I wish I could find Tom Skaarup and persuade him to send his site to a cookbook publisher so I could buy a dead-tree version.
hey, kitchen screw-ups can sometimes make the niftiest things… as a kid, my mom used to make blackberry jelly from the berries we picked. 9 times out of 10, however, she did something a little funky and we ended up with blackberry syrup instead. That was the best stuff on pancakes, waffles… oooh, and homemade fresh hot buttered biscuits…
darn, it’s almost 1am and now I’m hungry.
My wife has a “five-minute fudge” recipe she’s fond of. It’s good, and she uses it to make butterscotch fudge for a friend whose teeth probably hate him, as well as making the more common fudge-fudge.