Fudges: Fudge
Chocolate Fudge I 1 tablespoon butter 3/4 cup top milk 2 cups sugar 2 squares chocolate 1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, milk, and chocolate, stir gently until chocolate is melted, then bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 238 degrees F., or until it will form a soft ball when tried in cold water. Remove candy from fire, and let stand undisturbed until cool, add vanilla or cinnamon, and beat with a wooden spoon; or pour on marble slab and work with a spatula, until candy begins to get sugary. Turn immediately into a buttered pan, and mark in squares with a knife. The pan should be about seven inches square, so that the fudge will be three fourths of an inch thick when cut. Chocolate Fudge II 2 cups white sugar 2 teaspoons vinegar 1 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons butter 2 squares chocolate 1 cup milk 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Put sugars and milk in saucepan, stir until sugar is dissolved, and boil without stirring to 238 degrees F., or until candy forms a soft ball when tried in cold water. Add grated chocolate, butter, and vinegar, and pour on marble slab or large platter that has been wiped over with a damp cheesecloth. When cool add vanilla, and work with a spatula until creamy. Press into a buttered pan, or shape on a marble slab, and when firm cut in squares. Cocoa Fudge 2 tablespoons butter 1/3 cup cocoa 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup milk 1 tablespoon corn syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla Put ingredients, except vanilla, into saucepan, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 240 degrees F., or until candy will form a soft ball when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, leave undisturbed until cool, then beat and stir with a spoon, or work with a spatula, until candy begins to get sugary. Add vanilla, spread in a shallow buttered pan, and mark in squares. Sour Cream Fudge 2 squares chocolate 2/3 cup sour cream 2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/8 teaspoon salt Melt the chocolate in saucepan over hot water, add sugar, and when well blended add sour cream slowly. Put on the fire, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 238 degrees F., or until a soft ball is formed when a little candy is tried in cold water. Pour upon a marble slab or platter, slightly moistened by having been wiped over with a piece of damp cheesecloth, and leave undisturbed until cool. Add vanilla and salt, work with spatula or wooden butter paddle until mixture is thick and creamy, then knead with the hands until smooth. Roll out one fourth of an inch thick, and cut out with small fancy cutters.
This fudge may be melted by stirring in a saucepan over hot water. When poured on a loaf of cake it makes a delicious frosting. Satisfactory results may also be obtained by boiling to 230 degrees F. instead of 238 degrees F. Chocolate Acorns White grapes Chocolate Fudge Chopped nuts Remove grapes from bunch, leaving stems as long as possible, and wipe carefully. Melt chocolate fudge over hot water and in it dip grapes, one at a time, holding them by the stem so that about one third is coated. Over this coating sprinkle finely chopped and sifted walnuts. Clip off most of the grape stem. Serve in paper cases.
Five variations on one technique: boil a sugar syrup to the soft-ball stage, cool it undisturbed, then beat it into a fine-grained cream. The instructions are sound, and a thermometer makes them reliable.
- The hinge: cool before beatingEach of the four fudges says to let the candy stand undisturbed until cool, and that is the heart of the method. Beating hot syrup throws large crystals and gives grainy fudge; let it fall to about 110F, untouched and unstirred, then beat until it loses its gloss.
- Squares of chocolateA square is one ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate. Two squares is 2 oz; do not substitute semisweet without cutting the sugar, since these mixtures are already heavily sugared.
- Top milkThe cream that rose to the top of unhomogenised milk — roughly 10 percent fat. Half-and-half is the closest modern equivalent, or three parts whole milk to one part heavy cream.
- Sour creamIn older usage this often meant milk or cream that had naturally soured. Commercial cultured sour cream works and behaves predictably; the acid may invert some of the sucrose, which is probably part of why this fudge sets soft and smooth.
- Vinegar and corn syrupBoth are usually credited with interfering with crystal growth, by supplying acid or invert sugar rather than flavour. Note the timing, though: in Fudge II the vinegar goes in only after the syrup comes off the fire, so its effect there is limited.
- Temperatures238F is soft ball, 240F very slightly firmer. Calibrate the thermometer in boiling water first, and note that at altitude you should subtract about 1F per 500 feet. The margin is not razor-thin: the book itself allows 230F for the sour cream fudge.
- The marble slabA cool marble or granite worktop, or a large chilled platter, wiped with damp cheesecloth so the candy releases. A rimmed baking sheet set on a cold surface will do; the point is fast, even cooling without stirring.
- Yield and panFudge I specifies a seven-inch square pan so the slab comes out three-quarters of an inch thick, which cuts into roughly three dozen squares. The other batches differ in volume and are not sized to that pan.
- Chocolate acornsGrapes must be bone dry before dipping or the fudge will seize and slide off. Dip, coat with nuts, and serve the same day — the fruit weeps into the coating overnight.
Fudge is an American confection of the late nineteenth century, generally traced to women's colleges in the northeastern United States, where Vassar, Smith and Wellesley students are each credited with early versions, said by tradition to have been made over gas lamps in dormitory rooms; recipes circulated in college letters and cookbooks well before they reached commercial candy shops. What made it possible was cheap refined sugar — the difference between fudge and its grainy predecessors is nothing but crystal size, controlled by the two variables this book keeps insisting on: an exact final temperature, judged by thermometer or by the cold-water test, and absolute stillness while cooling. The sour cream and vinegar versions may preserve an older instinct that a little acid makes candy behave, and the chocolate acorns at the end have the character of party food, the sort of thing made at home for an evening's entertainment rather than bought.