Fudge is probably the most common homemade candy, and by following these recipes carefully you can make homemade fudge better and cheaper than fudge from the store.
Fudge gets its creamy consistency from beating. Cook it to the proper temperature, remove it from the heat, add whatever ingredients are called for after cooking, and then let it sit undisturbed until it's lukewarm. It should be less than 120 F when you start beating it or it can get grainy - and you'll spend a lot more time and energy beating it than you need to. If you use your candy thermometer to check the temperature as it cools be sure to wash it clean and dry it so you don't introduce any crystals that might have formed on it during cooking.
Once it's cool enough, start beating it with a spoon - keep beating it until it loses its gloss and starts to thicken. After it loses it's gloss it will suddenly begin to harden. If you don't pour it out onto a buttered plate or into a buttered eight inch square pan in time don't worry. Knead the fudge like bread dough and press it into shape on the plate or pan. The more you knead it the softer it will get. After you've made fudge a few times you will be able to judge when it is "ready" and can pour it out into the pan at just the right moment.
If things go wrong and your fudge comes out grainy or fails to harden you can rescue it. Put it all in a clean pan with some hot water and recook it to the proper temperature. Use half as much hot water as there is liquid in the original recipe (for example, in vanilla fudge there is 1/2 cup of evaporated milk, so use 1/4 cup of hot water when recooking.
You can speed the cooling stage by putting the hot pan in an inch of cold water in thebottom of the sink, but be careful you don't get it too cold. Waiting until it's too cold before you start to beat it can also make it grainy. Be careful not to get any water into it while it's cooling also, since when you cook to a temperature you are really cooking to a certain amount of water in the sugar, and if some gets into the cooling syrup it will be the same as if you cooked the candy to a lower temperature. The recipes here are designed so that the temperature you cook the syrup to matches the ingredients you add after you are done cooking so that the final product will harden correctly. That's why candies that seem to be nearly the same can have different cooking temperatures. The most obvious example in the book is the Chocolate Mint Divinity, it's cooked 14 degrees hotter than the Divinity without the chocolate because of the difference the chocolate makes in the way that the candy hardens.
If desired, when the fudge has just lost it's gloss during beating and is ready to pour out, chopped nuts, raisins, grated coconut, or chopped marshmallows can be added. Use 1/2 to 3/4 cup depending on your taste. You can add them sooner, but if you do they may be damaged in the beating. If you're like me, you like chocolate bars with crisped rice in them and might think they'd be great in fudge, but don't do it. I tried it once and they were a soggy disappointment.
These general instructions apply to the six fudge recipes that follow.
cook to 238 F (Soft ball - if a small amount of syrup is dropped into cold water and allowed to sit for a minute it can be formed into a soft ball that will hold it's shape by the fingers. I don't recommend cooking fudge this way, but it can be done if your willing to accept fudge that comes out great one time and not so great another time. Get a good candy thermometer and make great fudge every time.)
After removing from the heat add:
This is a long time favorite of my family and is easy to make. Just be sure that you have the cocoa and the sugar mixed completely before you add the liquids. This is a good fudge to try if you're making candy for the first time. It's a simple recipe without any grating and will let you concentrate on the bour basic steps without having to worry about melting chocolate or beating egg whites. Practice makes perfect and the simple recipes are good confidence builders before you tackle something more complicated.
cook to 236 F (soft ball) then add:
combine:
add:
melt together over low heat and stir until uniform
add:
cook to 238 F (soft ball) Remove from the heat and add:
melt together over low heat and stir until uniform
add:
cook to 236 F (soft ball) Remove from the heat and add:
Let it sit for a minute, then stir it just enough to break up the big lump of peanut butter so it will cool uniformly. Let it sit undisturbed until it's lukewarm (less than 120 F) and it's time to beat it.
cook to 238 F (soft ball) remove from the heat then add:
stir just enough to break up the lump of peanut butter so it will cool evenly, then let it sit until it's time to beat it.
cook to 236 F (soft ball) remove from the heat then add:
cook to 238 F (soft ball) remove from the heat then add: