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I love fudge, although fudge doesn’t necessarily love me, my hips, my complexion or my teeth! Having said that, fudge is great for all sorts of occasions . . . little and often, that’s my philosophy. It makes great gifts (for your skinnier friends of whom are you inherently jealous . . . the more moreish the better), it’s great to snack on in the car, on a hike, watching the TV . . . fudge is just awesome. Making your own fudge is easy peasy, and another brilliant thing about fudge (yes, I am a founder member of the “I heart fudge supporters club”) is that once you have your basic fudge recipe you can add just about anything you fancy to it to make it special . . . nuts, raisins, chocolate chips . . . mmmmm.

My Favorite Fudge Recipe

Let me give you the details of a really terrific fudge recipe, and then you can simply tweak it as much as you like.

Fudge is really quick and easy to prepare, the hardest part is waiting a couple of hours for it to cool, it only takes 10 minutes or so of prep time and another 15 or 20 minutes to actually cook. What might you like to put in your fudge?

Stuff Needed To Make Fudge

• Sugar – fudge has lots of sugar in it, about 4 cups to make loads and loads of lovely fudge candies
• butter – about half a cup should be okay with that amount of sugar
• evaporated milk – just 1 can is all you need
• chocolate chips – this is one of the bits you can change if you want to, but bear with me, this is great, you’ll need about 12 ounces of chocolate chips
• marshmallow creme – your mouth is watering already isn’t it? Just one jar is all you need.
• chopped walnuts – (the healthy section), 2 cups will do.
• vanilla – for a little extra flavor, just a couple of teaspoons is all you’ll need.

Making My Favorite Fudge

You’ll need a big, heavy saucepan, into which you should place the sugar, butter and the can of evaporated milk. Cover the saucepan and put it over a medium type heat until it starts to boil, keep stirring or it will burn and burned fudge is not the effect we’re after . . . .keep on cooking and stirring until your candy thermometer (do you have a candy thermometer – no? – well you’d better get one quick) reaches 228 degrees (that should take maybe 5 minutes or a bit more). Okay, now you can take it off from the heat and add in the chocolate chips . . . keep on stirring though until they melt . . . then add the marshmallow creme, blend it well before adding the vanilla and the nuts. Spread the mixture into a pan (13 x 9 inch should do the trick) and leave it to cool for a couple of hours, then cut it into inch square pieces and pop it into the refrigerator. Try not to eat it all at once, fudge is made for sharing . . .

Oh, I’m liking this Nicko character (and we have very similar taste in fudge) . . . who is he, where does he live and how do I get an invite to supper?

Right Phil, so that’s how you stop your fudge from getting “grainy” . . . keeping the sugar to the inside of the pan. Everybody has their own ideas don’t they? Great base recipe, simple yet delicious . . . thanks very much for that!