Dodyas

Join Date 06/2006

Deja Fudge

It's that time of year again..the time where I once again waste rare and precious food items (chocolate chips, pecans and marshmallow cream) to make pure and total POO!

Dodyas, what the fudge are you talking about?

On almost this exact same day 2 years ago I wrote the following...

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You can’t have Christmas without fudge. Not just any fudge -- My aunt’s fudge. So I trudged into the city the other day and bought a bag of chocolate chips and a jar of marshmallow cream at the American food store, for a small fortune of about 13 U.S. dollars. Sure I could have substituted the ingredients, or used a different recipe but I wanted it to taste authentic, like my aunt’s fudge.

So with my expensive ingredients and my aunt’s recipe I began. I could hardly contain my excitement. I followed the directions, but it never set. What I ended up with was fudge soup.

So today I tried again, with a different recipe since I didn’t have any more chocolate chips. So okay, it wouldn’t be my aunt’s fudge, but it would be fudge, dagnabbit!

Today, I ended up with fudge frosting.

I was telling the husband about my fudge problems and his response was: “Well, FUDGE!”

Smarty pants! Good thing this was on ICQ, because I would have hit him.

But what the heck is my problem with fudge? I’ve never been able to make it. I am an excellent cook. I really am. Ask anyone who’s ever eaten my food. (But hurry before they forget I paid them) But fudge hates me. And now, I hate fudge too. Darn you fudge, and all your elusive chocolately goodness!

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But apparently I have amnesia cause I once again forgot that I can't make fudge. And I once again ended up with fudge soup only to remember later WHY...I am not boiling it long enough. ARGH! So I have now written on the recipe card, "boil the everliving life out of it!" I think I remember Auntie saying I could reboil it and it would set..but I might have made that up. But I did try and what I ended up with is marbled burnt fudge crap.

Blessed are the fudgemakers for they shall have chocolatey goodness all the days of their lives.
The rest of us just have to depend on Auntie!

P.S. The 31 Days of Christmas will be returning as soon as I watch a bunch of movies, write quick reviews and back date them.

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Now you just made me crave fudge...grr...stomach's rumbling now....I've always loved chocolatey goodness.

~Zoo

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Fudge frosting is good though... I know my Mom messed up fudge one year, and it was a great snack!

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Mmmmmm, fundge. My mom made (makes?) awesome fudge. Simple, but just too darn good to believe. I miss it.

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this reminds me of my moms "stick jaw" = failed fudge!

we had fun with that stuff!

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Dodyas:

First, sorry I'm late to the welcome to JU party. But welcome just the same.

Second, I have a never fail very easy fudge recipe at home. I will try to remember to post it tonight--it doesn't involve any boiling (so, I suppose it's not really fudge, but it looks like fudge and tastes like fudge).

I have heard that if you make fudge when it is raining it might not set correctly. Old wives tale? I dunno.

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My mom made (makes?) awesome fudge. Simple, but just too darn good to believe. I miss it.

Doesn't she, though? It's divine. I'm gonna beg her to make some for me.

Heh heh heh.

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Ok... she was right. You can re-boil it. It is a chemistry issue.

I am very familiar with pralines (most years we make a 10 or 12 dozen) but not fudge. It has to do with aligning the sugar crystals just right. Do you have a candy thermometer?

With pralines it is 225 degrees and then remove from the heat and stir like hell until they begin to set. If you are ending up with soup I would bet that it is one of the two things. Either it didn't get hot enough or you didn't stir it long enough once you removed it from the heat.

In either case the world isn't over and you need not throw away that batch. It generally doesn't come out quite as tasty if you have to reapply heat to it and never turns out as pretty but if the recipe is good it is certainly more than edible.

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John is right. I makes pounds of fudge every Christmas.

You know its done when the bubbles popping make stiff peaks, or you drop a little into a cold glass of water and it turns into a soft fuzzy looking ball.....if that fails use a thermometer and I think usually around 230 F...gets a decent consistency...between 230-240.

Good luck!

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You're funny! I can't make stuff like that! Maybe I could if I tried, but I'm not into baking or pastry making! I do love to eat chewy, gooey fundge though!

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Thanks for all the tips y'all, but I tell ya I am totally hopeless. Yup, I do use a thermometer. I have decided to blame it on Sweden. I mean I never had a problem with it in the U.S.. Then again, I don't remember making it in the U.S., but I am sure I did.

Shadesofgrey

First, sorry I'm late to the welcome to JU party. But welcome just the same.Second, I have a never fail very easy fudge recipe at home. I will try to remember to post it tonight--it doesn't involve any boiling (so, I suppose it's not really fudge, but it looks like fudge and tastes like fudge). I have heard that if you make fudge when it is raining it might not set correctly. Old wives tale? I dunno.

Thanks for the welcome!

! One of the fudge recipes I tried two years ago was called Never-Fail Fudge. I am the one person that can fail even with that! Never say never fail!

Hey, yeah I can blame it on the rain! It was raining the day I made it!

JustJohn

Reboiling didn't work! I think it was because I had already put in the marshmallow cream which comes after the boiling stage.
I was able reboil my pralines though! And they turned out great!

I think I am officially DONE trying to make fudge though until I move back to the States...back to where if I screw up I can throw it out and drive 5 minutes to the grocery store, plop down 5 bucks and get more supplies. Doesn't work quite that way in Sweden! Until then I will drown my sorrows in pralines, peanut butter balls, sweet potato bread, gingerbread cookies, and all the other things I managed to not screw up!

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Until then I will drown my sorrows in pralines, peanut butter balls, sweet potato bread, gingerbread cookies, and all the other things I managed to not screw up!

Yum! I love Christmas but it doesn't love my waist.

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Here's the recipe:

Bailey’s Fudge

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chips
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream

Line an 8 inch square pan with parchment or foil. If using foil, grease the foil with butter

Melt the 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons butter.

Stir the confectioner's sugar and Irish cream into the melted chocolate. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and lay a sheet of plastic wrap over top; press and smooth top down.

You really can't fail at this recipe!!

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I hear ya John!

Oh and shadesofgrey, that recipes looks so yummy! Too bad I am out of chips now. Darn Swedish grocery stores!

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Too bad I am out of chips now

I'm sure you could subsitute another kind of chocolate as long as it was sweetened--like a couple cadbury chocolate bars and then a 1/3 that amount of Cadbury Dream (those are the white chocolate ones, right?) That should work--or whatever the equivalent is.

I could be wrong, but I think that 1 1/2 cups is around 12 oz, and 1/2 is about 4oz-- don't ask me to do metric...but I"m sure you could wing it with candy bars (and european chocolate is so much better than American!!)

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