I don’t know what got me on a candy kick, but I have sweets on the brain lately. This fudge is chocolate-y, creamy�and entirely too easy to eat.
If you have friends in far-flung places, wrap it up tightly and send a little love. It ships really well.
Creamy Chocolate Fudge, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap then wax paper
Creamy Chocolate Fudge: A note on selecting chocolate
I love this fudge made with regular, unsweetened Baker’s Chocolate.
By all means, use any chocolate you like. Just be sure that it’s unsweetened.
Creamy Chocolate Fudge
3 cups sugar
8 Tbls. butter
1 cup light cream
pinch of salt
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped roughly
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
a little more butter to coat the pan
Makes about 1.5 lbs. of fudge
Creamy Chocolate Fudge: Prep the pan & chocolate
Generously butter an 8 inch x 8 inch glass pan. Set it aside.
Roughly chop the chocolate up. I usually use my serrated bread knife to do this. It works really well.
Creamy Chocolate Fudge: Melt the ingredients
Combine the sugar, butter, salt, and chocolate in a medium-sized pan.
Pour in the cream.
Give it a good stir to break the sugar up and mix the ingredients together.
Set it on the stove over medium heat. Stir constantly as your ingredients begin to melt. Keep stirring until the mixture boils.
The ingredients should melt together completely before the mixture starts to boil. Keep stirring.
Creamy Chocolate Fudge: Boil the mixture to soft-ball stage
When the mixture begins to boil around the edges, stop stirring. Leave the heat on medium.
Clip your candy thermometer to the inside of the pot. (Be sure that it’s not touching the bottom of the pot.)
Cook the fudge like this for about 10 minutes, without stirring.
It will come to a rolling boil and should stay there.
Boil like this until the mixture reaches soft-ball stage on your candy thermometer. This will take about 10 minutes or so.
Creamy Chocolate Fudge: Cool and beat the fudge
When it reaches soft-ball stage, it should look about like this. Remove the pan from heat.
Let it sit until it cools to about 120 degrees.
It will have a slight skin on it as it cools. That’s just fine.
When the fudge has cooled to 120 degrees, tranfer it to the bowl of your stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl if you’re using a hand-held mixer).
Beat it for a few minutes. It will start to thicken and begin to lose its gloss.
When the mixture starts to thicken, toss in the vanilla extract.
Keep beating the fudge until it loses its gloss completely.
Wait…loses its gloss? What do you mean?
Don’t stop beating the fudge until it looks about like this:
Creamy Chocolate Fudge: Cool the fudge completely in the pan
Turn the beaten fudge out into your prepared, buttered pan.
With your hands (or the back of a wooden spoon), pat the fudge down to spread it out. You want to make it as compact as you can, and smoosh any air pockets out of it.
You want the surface to be fairly flat and even, like this. Don’t make yourself nuts. The main reason to make it even is to make it easier to cut pieces that are the same size.
Cool completely in the pan, uncovered. When the fudge is cool, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and store it in a cool place.
Enjoy!
