Fudges: Maple
Maple Marshmallow Fudge 1 tablespoon butter 1/2 cup maple syrup 1 cup sugar 1/3 cup cream Sheet marshmallow Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, syrup, and cream, stir until sugar is dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 238 degrees F., or until mixture forms a soft ball when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, let stand undisturbed until cool, then beat with a wooden spoon, or pour out on a marble slab or agate tray and work with a spatula, until candy begins to get firm. Return to saucepan, and stir over hot water until melted but not hot. Turn half the mixture in a quarter-inch layer in buttered pan or between candy bars. Lay on it a sheet of marshmallow, cover with remaining fudge, and leave until firm. Cut in three-quarter-inch squares. Maple Chocolate Fudge 1 tablespoon butter 1/3 cup cream 1 cup sugar 2 squares unsweetened chocolate 1/2 cup maple syrup 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, syrup, cream, 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, and beat with a wooden spoon, or pour out on marble slab or agate tray and work with a spatula, until candy begins to get firm. Turn immediately into a buttered pan, or spread between candy bars, and mark in squares with a knife. This may be finished as maple marshmallow fudge, or one cup chopped nuts may be added if desired.
Maple Nut Fudge 1 tablespoon butter 1/3 cup cream 1 cup sugar 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans 1/2 cup maple syrup 1/4 teaspoon salt Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, syrup, and cream, stir until sugar is dissolved, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 238 degrees F., or until mixture forms a soft ball when tried in cold water. Remove candy from fire, and let stand undisturbed until cool. Add nuts and salt, and beat with wooden spoon, or pour out on marble slab and work with spatula, until candy begins to get firm. Turn immediately into a buttered pan, or spread between candy bars and mark in squares.
Pralines Make recipe for Maple Nut Fudge, omitting nuts. When mixture becomes firm, put in saucepan, stir over hot water until softened, add nuts, preferably pecans, leaving them in large pieces. Drop from spoon on buttered marble slab or tin sheet in rounds three inches in diameter.
Maple Cream 2 cups maple sugar 3/4 cup cream or milk Break sugar in pieces, put in saucepan, add cream or milk, and boil without stirring to 238 degrees F., or until candy will form a soft ball when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, and leave undisturbed until cool. Then stir and beat with a spoon, or work with a spatula, until candy begins to get sugary. Turn into a buttered pan, and mark in squares, or put into very small individual tins. Maple cream may be packed in jelly glasses, covered with paraffin paper and a tin cover, and kept for frosting cake, or used as fondant is used.
One cup cream may be used instead of three fourths cup if a richer candy is wanted.
Walnut Maple Cream To recipe for Maple Cream add three fourths cup walnuts cut in pieces, when candy begins to get sugary.
Pecan Maple Cream Follow directions for making Maple Cream, adding one cup of pecan nut meats cut in small pieces when candy begins to get sugary. Hickory nuts or butternuts may be used.
Orange Fudge 2 tablespoons butter Grated rind one orange 2 cups sugar 4 teaspoons orange juice 3/4 cup milk 1/2 cup candied orange peel Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar, milk, grated orange rind, and strained orange juice, mix well, 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 from fire, leave undisturbed until cool, then beat and stir with a spoon, or work with a spatula, until candy begins to get sugary. Stir in candied orange peel, cut in small pieces, pour into a buttered pan, and cut in squares.
It may be omitted from this recipe if desired.
Peanut Butter Fudge 2 cups sugar 4 tablespoons peanut butter 3/4 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla Few grains salt Put sugar and milk in saucepan, bring to boiling point, and boil without stirring to 238 degrees F., or until candy forms a soft ball when tried in cold water. Remove from fire, let stand undisturbed until cool, add salt, peanut butter, and vanilla; then beat with spoon or work with spatula until creamy; turn into buttered pan and mark in squares.
Raisin Fudge 2 cups light brown sugar 1/2 cup raisins 7/8 cup thin cream 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Put sugar and cream in saucepan and cook to 238 degrees F., or until a soft ball is formed when tried in cold water. Pour on a marble slab, large platter, or agate tray, and leave until cool. With a broad spatula scrape and turn the fudge until it begins to get firm. When creamy add raisins and vanilla, and spread evenly in a buttered pan, using the hands.
Raspberry Fudge 2 cups sugar 1/4 cup raspberry jam 1 cup water 1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar Few drops red color paste Put sugar, water, and cream of tartar in saucepan, stir until dissolved, and boil to 245 degrees F., or until it forms a firm ball when tried in cold water. Pour out on dampened slab, tray, or platter; when cool add raspberry jam, extract, and a little red color paste. Work until creamy, shape, and cut in squares.
A cluster of fudges built on one method: boil to the soft-ball stage, cool undisturbed, then beat. The details below cover the points where old candy practice differs from current habit.
- The hinge: cool before beatingEvery recipe here says to let the syrup stand undisturbed until cool, then beat. That is not optional padding. Agitating hot syrup throws large sugar crystals and gives grainy fudge; cooling to about 110F before beating gives the fine crystals that make fudge smooth. Do not stir while it cools, and do not scrape the pan sides in.
- Temperatures are literal238F is the soft-ball stage and 245F the firm ball. Use a calibrated candy thermometer, checked in boiling water first, and remember that at altitude you subtract roughly 2F for each 1,000 feet above sea level.
- Sheet marshmallowSold in the period as a flat slab to be cut to size. Modern equivalents are marshmallow creme spread thin, or a single layer of miniature marshmallows pressed flat; a cut-open jumbo marshmallow will also lie flat enough.
- CreamIn books of this period "cream" generally means what we would call light or thin cream, in the region of 18-20% butterfat; heavy cream cut with a little milk approximates it, and half-and-half is thinner still. 7/8 cup is one cup less two tablespoons.
- Maple sugar and syrupMaple sugar is sold in hard cakes and in granulated form; the granulated dissolves faster and needs no breaking up. Use real syrup, not pancake table syrup, which is corn syrup with flavouring and behaves differently on the boil.
- Unsweetened chocolateTwo squares means two ounces. Modern baking bars are scored, but the section size varies by brand, so weigh out two ounces or check the wrapper.
- Candy barsNot confectionery: these are the metal or wooden strips confectioners laid on a slab to frame a slab of candy at a set thickness. A small buttered pan of the right depth does the same job.
- Colour pasteRed colour paste was often coal-tar based. Use current gel food colouring, which is the same idea in concentrated form.
- YieldThese are small batches: the one-cup-sugar recipes make only a few dozen of the three-quarter-inch squares the text calls for, the two-cup batches about twice as much. Fudge keeps a week in a tin, layered with waxed paper.
- Storing maple creamThe instruction to pack it in jelly glasses under paraffin paper is for a sugar paste, not a preserve, and it keeps because the sugar concentration is high. Refrigerate it in a sealed jar instead and use within a couple of weeks.
Fudge is generally taken to be an American creation of the late nineteenth century, usually traced to the women's colleges -- a recipe circulated at Vassar in the late 1880s, and Smith and Wellesley versions are also cited -- though much of that story rests on later recollection rather than contemporary record. The maple variants use ingredients that were cheap and local in the Northeast, and that carry flavour plain white sugar does not. The pralines in this section are the northern reading of the name, a maple-fudge patty with pecans, distinct from the New Orleans praline made with brown sugar and cream, though the name goes back to the French almond confection called pralin. The marble slab and the spatula, taken for granted throughout, suggest a book written when the home cook was expected to imitate the professional candy kitchen.