Home › Christmas Dinners › Mocha Marshmallow Fudge
Mocha Marshmallow Fudge
2 cups dark brown sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon cream tartar 1/2 tablespoon butter 1/2 cup very black coffee 9 marshmallows 1/2 teaspoon almond extract Combine the sugar, salt, cream of tartar, butter and coffee and simmer gently without stirring until a little dropped in cold water forms a soft ball (238 degrees F.). Cool slightly, but do not let it set. Cut the marshmallows and add to the fudge. Add the flavor and beat until well mixed, smooth and creamy. Pour into a buttered dish and let set. Before it gets thoroughly set, cut into squares.
A brown-sugar fudge made with coffee rather than milk, so it sets firmer and darker than a cream fudge. The whole recipe turns on cooling before beating.
- The hinge: cool before beating"Cool slightly, but do not let it set" gives no temperature or time; general fudge practice is to let the syrup fall well below boiling, toward about 110F, before beating. Beating a hot syrup tends to give large sugar crystals and a gritty fudge; beating a cooled one gives the fine grain that reads as creamy.
- Soft ballThe original already gives the number, 238F, and it is the right one. Use a digital thermometer and check it in boiling water first, since altitude and calibration both shift the reading. Below 234F the fudge will not set; above 242F it turns hard and dry.
- Do not stir while it boilsThe instruction is deliberate. Once the sugar has dissolved, any stirring or scraping of the pan sides seeds crystals early. Wash down the sides once with a wet pastry brush and then leave it alone.
- Very black coffeeThis means strong brewed coffee, no milk, no sugar. Double-strength drip or a diluted shot of espresso both work. It is the only liquid in the recipe, so it carries all the flavour.
- Cream of tartarAn eighth of a teaspoon is there to invert part of the sugar and discourage coarse crystals, not for flavour. It is still sold in the spice aisle; do not substitute baking powder.
- MarshmallowsPeriod marshmallows cannot be assumed to match the modern bagged sort in size, so nine is an uncertain measure; about 1/2 cup of miniature marshmallows, or four to five large ones snipped up, is a reasonable stand-in. Add them off the heat, as directed, so they melt into the syrup rather than boiling.
- Almond extractHalf a teaspoon of almond against dark coffee and molasses sugar is assertive. Vanilla is the safer choice if you want the coffee forward, but the almond is what makes this read as a holiday sweet rather than plain penuche.
- Pan and yieldNo dish size is given. Two cups of sugar will fill a small pan such as an 8x4-inch loaf or a 6-inch square to a shallow depth; expect on the order of a pound of fudge and 16 to 20 small squares. Score it while still slightly soft, as directed, then finish cutting when cold.
Fudge belongs to the American college-town sweets of the late nineteenth century, made in school and dormitory rooms and spread by women's college cookbooks, and by the 1920s and 30s the commercial marshmallow had found its way into many versions of it. Adding marshmallow was a shortcut to the smooth, non-grainy texture that beating alone achieves only temperamentally: the gelatin and corn syrup in the confection interfere with sugar crystal growth. "Mocha" here carries the American candy-counter sense of coffee flavour, often with chocolate overtones, rather than pointing to coffee from Mocha in Yemen, though the recipe supplies no chocolate at all and leans on dark brown sugar for its colour and depth.