Brown Sugar Fudge
Submitted by griz
Brown sugar fudge cooked to the soft-ball stage with molasses, heavy cream, and a touch of unsweetened chocolate. Old-fashioned candy-thermometer method for a creamy, never-grainy result that sets up firm and slices clean.
YIELD
16 servingsPREP
30 minCOOK
30 minREADY
2 hrsOld-school fudge made the way your grandmother did it, with a candy thermometer and a good dose of patience. Brown sugar and a spoonful of molasses give this batch its deep caramel backbone, while unsweetened chocolate rounds out the sweetness so it never tastes one-note.
The whole game is the soft-ball stage. You cook the sugar, cream, and butter until a dropped bit forms a ball in ice water that stays slightly chewy, almost al dente. Pull it too early and it won’t set; push it too far and you get a brick.
Then comes the part most folks rush: cooling and beating. Let the mixture drop to lukewarm before you stir, then beat until it loses its shine and “snaps” with each stroke. That snap is your cue it’s ready to pour and score.
Kitchen Tips
- Butter the inside walls of the pan before you start. It stops stray sugar crystals from climbing and graining the whole batch.
- Wash down crystals on the pan sides with a wet pastry brush as it boils. Rogue crystals are the number one reason fudge turns sandy.
- Don’t stir once it hits a rolling boil, and don’t jostle it while it cools. Agitation triggers early crystallization.
- Fold in chopped walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts right before it fully candies, not after, or they won’t distribute.
Variations
- Skip the chocolate and add an extra spoonful of molasses for a pure penuche-style brown sugar fudge.
- Sprinkle flaky sea salt over the top as you pour for a salted-caramel finish.
Ingredients
Directions
PREPARE: Prewarm the thermometer in hot water; use a 2-quart saucepan; butter the upper sides (inside) of the saucepan; measure all ingredients except the vanilla and optionals, and dump into the saucepan.
Grease and if necessary, line a 5 X 10-inch pan.
Fill glass with ice cubes and water and the sink with ½ inch of cold water.
Dissolve the sugar, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, over low heat until the butter melts, the gritty sounds cease, and the spoon glides smoothly over the bottom of the pan.
Increase the heat to medium and bring to a boil.
Boil, after washing down any crystals that may have formed, with a pastry brush dipped in hot water from the thermometer bath, using as little water as possible.
Introduce the prewarmed thermometer.
Reduce the heat while keeping the fudge at a boil.
Stir no more than necessary.
Test the fudge mixture in the ice-cold water when the mixture thickens and bubbles become noisy.
Ball, formed in ice water, should hold its shape until the heat from your had begins to flatten it and should be al dente ~- slightly chewy -- between 230 and 240 (110 and 115½ degrees C.).
Shock by placing the saucepan in the cold water in the sink.
Seed by adding, without stirring, the vanilla.
Then allow to cool.
Stir when luke warm and “skin” forms on the top (110 degrees F. (43½ degrees C.)).
Return the thermometer to its hot water bath to soak clean.
Stir the fudge thoroughly but not vigorously by hand, with an electric mixer, or with a food processor.
Pause frequently to allow the fudge to react.
Watch for the fudge to thicken, lose its sheen, and become lighter in color or streaked with lighter shade, give off some heat, suddenly stiffen.
If mixing by had, the fudge will “snap” with each stroke; by mixer, mixer waves will become very distinct, by food processor, fudge will flow sluggishly back to the center when the processor is stopped.
Add the optionals (½ Cup Chopped Nuts (walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts (filberts)) before the fudge totally candies.
Pour, score, and store when cool in an airtight container in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
YIELD: 1 pound of fudge.
Recipe is easily doubled and can be frozen.
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