I know, who blogs about fudge? But, as I’m making a job lot for the school’s fireworks party, it seemed silly not to take the opportunity to pass on some sugary tips! Personally, I love making confectionary of all kinds, and have the odd burn mark to prove it.
The following really are worth doing before you begin – once the sugar is boiling, you’ll have no time to waste on anything else! A few seconds over and your fudge will be a burnt mess! So:
- Always have all of your equipment ready, prepped and good to go
- Make sure you dig out your sugar thermometer from the back of the drawer, and if you haven’t used it for a while, I’d recommend you check how accurate it is. You can do this by bringing it to the boil in water for ten minutes or so, and checking the resulting readings. It should read 100°C or 212° F. If your thermometer varies in any way, you’ll need to adjust your readings accordingly
- Sugar can take a surprisingly long time to reach the required boiling temperature – don’t be tempted to turn the heat up too high, it will get there in the end! And once it has, you will need to turn off the heat source immediately
- Use a big heavy pan – it will conduct the heat better, and give you enough space for the sugar to rise
- Keep stirring the mixture during the initial heating phase – ensure that any sugar crystals on the side of the pan are reincorporated into the mixture. I usually use a small brush in some warm water to brush down the sides, though clearly you don’t want to slop the water it. I know some people pop a lid on occasionally, and the steam washes the crystals back down, but I have little success with this and keeping my thermometer in place
- Once the sugar has hit 115°C STOP agitating the mixture, do not stir it, or even move the pan!
- Allow the fudge to cooled to below 110°C, then follow the rest of your recipe, adding flavourings, colours, beating the mixture etc. Now, the recipes below call for immediate whipping, and tell you to go until the fudge gets grainy. You can avoid this to some extent by following these rules. Ultimately it’s a question of personal preference.
I’m tend to use the recipes in the Hope and Greenwood book, and it’s the one which I first found when I started making confectionary. It’s very clearly (and amusingly) written, with good illustrations, and is accessible to most home cooks. I now have a number of other books, some of which are very technical. For American readers, I would also recommend Sugar Baby, which has a very similar style.
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| At least it really is as simple as popping everything in on pan! |
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| Line your tins with baking parchment, to ensure easy removal later. Do it before you begin cooking. |
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| Beating the golden syrup mixture, you can see it’s much smoother than the second. |
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| Pour the beaten mixture into a tin, and allow to cool for at least an hour |
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| You can see my sugar thermometer is not completely calibrated. Checking the readings allows you to adjust your temperatures. |
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| This is the ‘standard’ sugar, condensed milk recipe – it’s much paler and reaches boiling point faster |
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| Beating the ‘standard’ vanilla version results in a much more crumbly fudge, it’s texture is much dense and grainy, but still flavourful. |
Needless to say, I completely forgot to photograph the bagged finished product, which is rather irritating. I split the bags 50-50, so that one half was the silky smooth deep fudge, and the other half was the lighter, more crumbly vanilla. I preferred the darker one personally, and every adult I gave it too did as well – we preferred the texture. However the children preferred the blonde vanilla version. I’ve also made the peanut butter fudge, and here is some I have in my fridge – this is what I would usually make, but couldn’t as the school is nut-free. So, enjoy, but don’t over-indulge!
A Variation on Hope and Greenwoods Honey and Ginger Fudge
[Using golden syrup, and no ginger, capisce? This is the darker variation in my photos]
Ingredients:
450g granulated sugar
150ml golden syrup (or honey)
75g unsalted butter
200ml evaporated milk
200ml double cream
Method:
- Line a 20cm quare baking tin, 4cm deep, with baking parchment
- Place the sugar, syrup, evaporated milk, double cream and butter into a deep, heavy-bottomed pan and gently heat until the sugar had dissolved, stirring with a wooden spoon – this takes 3-5 minutes
- Now turn the heat up to medium and place your sugar thermometer in the pan. Bring the mixture to the boil – just to make sure it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. Pay attention! After 15 minutes the mixture should have reached 100oC, now turn down the heat to a simmer, as it is at this point that the fudge is most likely to burn.
- Keept heating until the mixture has reached 115oC, tka the pan off the heat, and using an electric whist, beat the mixture until the fudge loses it’s gloss.
- Pour into the prepared tin. After an hour or so, score the surface into rough squares with a knife. Once cold and firm, break into squares.
- [If you wish to make the ginger variation, finely chop stem ginger and add at the beating stage, along with 2 Tbsp of the ginger syrup]
Hope and Greenwood Crumbly Vanilla-Pod Fudge
[This is the pale one in my photographs]
Ingredients:
700g granulated sugar
75g unsalted butter
200ml evaporated milk
200ml double cream
Seeds, scraped from 1 vanilla pod
Method:
- Line a 20cm quare baking tin, 4cm deep, with baking parchment
- Place the sugar, syrup, evaporated milk, double cream and butter into a deep, heavy-bottomed pan and gently heat until the sugar had dissolved, stirring with a wooden spoon – this takes 3-5 minutes. (You can check the sugar has dissolved by running a metal spoon through the mixture and looking on the back of the spoon for sugar crystals).
- Now turn up the heat to medium, and place your sugar thermometer in the pan. Bring the mixture up to 100oC, stirring occasionally, then lower the heat to a gentle boil. Boil for a further 10 minutes, but take care when the thermometer reaches 115oC, as at this point the mixture burns easily. Remove from the heat.
- Using an electric hand whisk, or food process, or indeed a wooden spoon, beat the mixture for 10 minutes and then add the vanilla seeds. Beat for a further 10 minutes or until the mixture loses its shine, thickens up and starts to appear grainy around the edges. Pour into the prepared tin. [Personally, I prefer my fudge smooth, but see the points at the beginning of the post]
- Set aside to cool. After about 1 hour, score the surface into rough squares with a knife. Once cold and firm, break into squares.
Hope and Greenwood Peanut Butter Fudge
Ingredients:
500g caster sugar
340ml evaporated milk
2 Tbsp double cream
100g butter
2 large rounded Tbsp crunch peanut butter
Method:
- Line a 20cm quare baking tin, 4cm deep, with baking parchment
- Place the sugar, evaporated milk, souble cream and butter into a deep, heavy-bottomed pan over a gentle heat. Stir this mixture with a wooden spoon until the sugar has dissolved – this takes about 5 minutes
- Turn up the heat to medium, place your sugar thermometer in the pan and bring the mixture to the boil – it will double in size so put the cat in a safe place [See, told you she was funny :0)]
- Bring the mixture up to 100oC, stirring occasionally, then lower the heat to a gentle boil. Boil for a further 10 minutes, but take care when the thermometer reaches 115oC, as at this point the mixture burns easily. Remove from the heat.
- Using an electric hand whisk, or food process, or indeed a wooden spoon, beat the mixture for 10 minutes and then add the peanut butter. Beat for a further 15 minutes or until the mixture loses its shine, thickens up and starts to appear grainy. Pour into the prepared tin. [Personally, I prefer my fudge smooth, but see the points at the beginning of the post]
- Set aside to cool. After about 1 hour, score the surface into rough squares with a knife. Once cold and firm, break into squares.
Now that you know how to make fudge, you can move on to caramels, toffee etc – it’s simply a question of getting your ingredients to the right temperature. As a quick guide, the temperatures are as follows:
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Stage
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Type
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Celsius
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Fahrenheit
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Thread
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Syrup
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110°C to 112°C
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230°F to 234°F
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Soft ball
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Fudge
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112°C to 116°C
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234°F to 240°F
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Firm ball
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Caramel
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118°C to 120°C
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242°F to 248°F
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Hard ball
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Nougat
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121°C to 130°C
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250°F to 268°F
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Soft crack
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Butterscotch
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132°C to 143°C
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270°F to 290°F
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Hard crack
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Toffee
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146°C to 154°C
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300°F to 310°F
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