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Fruit Fudge
3 cups granulated sugar 3 teaspoons cocoa 3/4 cup milk 1 tablespoon butter 1/2 cup chopped raisins 1/4 cup cocoanut 1/2 cup chopped nuts 3/4 cup figs, cut in small pieces Mix sugar and cocoa, add milk and butter and boil until it forms a soft ball in cold water, then add fruit and nuts. Pour into a buttered pan, and when partly cooled, mark into squares.
A plain boiled fudge carrying more dried fruit than chocolate. The whole thing turns on the soft-ball stage, and on what you do in the minutes after the pan comes off the heat.
- Soft ball means 236"FSoft ball -- conventionally given as 235-240"F. A candy thermometer helps; the cold-water test in the recipe works too. At three cups of sugar a few degrees either side makes the difference between a square that cuts and one that does not set.
- The missing step is the beatingAs written the syrup goes straight into the pan, which gives coarse, grainy crystals. Standard practice is to let the pan stand undisturbed until it drops to about 110"F, then beat until it loses its gloss and thickens, stirring the fruit and nuts in at the end of the beating.
- Cocoa quantityThree teaspoons of cocoa in three cups of sugar is barely a tint. If you want a recognisably chocolate fudge, work up to 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa, sifted with the sugar so it does not lump.
- CocoanutThis is dried shredded coconut. Sweetened shredded coconut was common in American groceries, so unsweetened desiccated coconut may suit the sugar load here better.
- Whole milk, and watch the bottomMilk-based fudge scorches easily. Use a heavy saucepan, stir until the sugar dissolves, then leave it alone and keep the heat moderate.
- Figs and raisinsDried figs stiffen as they cool and can set into hard nuggets. Snip out the tough stem ends and chop finer than you think necessary, or steep the fruit briefly in hot water and drain it well.
- Pan and yieldThe recipe does not specify a pan. A buttered 8-inch square pan should give squares roughly 3/4 inch thick, about 36 pieces. Score while the surface is still warm and cut through once fully set.