aw, fudge!
i just tried making fudge for the first time tonight--thankfully not for any real reason, just as a test. it's not setting very hard, AND at the same time is sort of grainy. not badly grainy, just tastes like alot of sugar. i tried googling for the answer and apparently if it's too soft it's UNDERcooked, but if it's grainy it's OVERcooked. i've decided to go with undercooked for this one.
i was wondering if it's possible to re-melt the fudge and try to get it to the right temp this time? that may be a dumb question but i've never experiemented with candy of any type, thought it could be worth a shot!
Nancy
Jan 20, 2003 11:05PM
Yup, I'd go with undercooked, too -- it's probably grainy because it was underbeaten or beaten at the wrong temp.
Good fudge requires precision!
As far as I know you're just out of luck. There's no way to melt it down and start over.
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damn! i knew the recipe sounded deceptively simple. luckily my roommate seems to enjoy the soft texture.
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i've never had fudge as good as the one i've been making since i was 7 from my first cookbook. its not cooked, like most, therefore doesnt have the sickly sweet taste or the gritty sugery feel. its made with cream cheese and is very chocolaty and creamy. let me know if you're up for trying it. joan
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That sounds great - can you please post the recipe?
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this recipe is from a book called, "Mary Alden's cook book for children"
\ CREAM CHEESE FUDGE-9" x 9" square pan
4 squares (1oz.each)unsweetened chocolate
6oz.cream cheese (room temperature)
1lb.confectioner's sugar
1-2T.cream
1/2t.vanilla
1/8t.salt
1/2c.chopped walnuts or pecans
grease the pan. melt the chocolate in microwave or in a double boiler. beat the cream cheese and 1T.cream with a wooden spoon till soft. slowly add the sugar, here's where some elbow grease is needed. add a little more cream if needed.no more than 1T.it will eventually come together. dont use a mixer,food processor or blender, the texture becomes tooo smooth. stir the vanilla and salt into the melted chocolate, and add it to the cream cheese. mix well, add the nuts and transfer to the pan. press down firmly and refrigerate till cold (an hour or 2, i forget). cut into small squares and enjoy, joan
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Wow...I am. Recipe, please!
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definitely! sounds great...please post when you can!
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I agree there's really no way to fix it at this point.
What recipe did you use? One with or without marshmallow cream?
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without. it was off foodtv.com, gale gand's recipe. just milk, chocolate, sugar, butter, vanilla, corn syrup and salt.
i had a thermometer in there but it was hard to be exact. it was definitely over the 225-degree point, less than halfway to 250-degrees. i probably should have tested for the softball stage just in case, but like i said, i'm totally new to trying to make candy...
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I don't know what recipe you used but I get the most compliments on the fudge that I make from the recipe off of the Fluff jars. And it is really simple to make!
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I'm afraid you'll have to get yourself a good, accurate candy thermometer (not an instant-read, but the kind that clips onto the bowl) in order to make fudge. This sounds like it was undercooked, and then, possibly underbeaten (though no amount of beating will fix undercooked fudge).
Don't feel bad -- making candy for the first time is very hard. Invest in the thermometer, and then beat the heck out of it (like for 10 minutes for most recipes) once it's off the heat. Fudge is a good place to start your candy-making efforts. If you can believe this, fudge is actually more forgiving than many homemade candies!
And for those who subscribe to the "Fluff" fudge recipes -- I agree that stuff is pretty good, but it doesn't compare to real fudge, in my opinion. I actually think they are pretty different tastes -- the Fluff fudge having a much sweeter, less dense flavor, and a texture more like a thick nougat than fudge.
Good luck, Nancy, and let us know if you try again and how it goes.
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I agree on all counts, Mrs. Smith! The Fluff stuff may be good, but it isn't fudge. Commercially made fudge isn't even really fudge -- I think they add too much corn syrup to get that gooey texture. There's really nothing like homemade fudge.
I see in another post that she only cooked it between 225 and 250. Soft ball stage is 238 to 240, so it seems certain she undercooked it.
Use a thermometer. I usually leave it in after I take the fudge off the stove, so I cool it to the right temp before beating, too (most recipes recommend 110 degrees). Then beat the heck out of it (use a spoon with a rounded handle or your hand will hurt!).
Both the temperature and the beating are essential to getting the right crystallization structure of the sugar, which is the essence of fudge.
However, even if you mess up the texture, it still tastes good, so if you undercook it you get fudge sauce, and if you overcook it you can knaw on it or crush it into chocolate sprinkles.
Also, there may be something to "fudge weather" -- in humid weather the sugar crystals may absorb too much moisture and not set properly.
Speaking of not setting properly ... I almost told this story in the "everyone can cook" discussion to demonstrate that even experienced cooks can have trouble following a recipe.
A friend asked me to make the ginger candy recipe from Joy of Cooking (the 1970 edition). I read the recipe, and it was basically a fudge recipe with ginger instead of chocolate. The recipe called for "X amount finely chopped ginger". I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. As far as I was concerned, "ginger" without any modifier meant fresh ginger root. I made the recipe, applying my 20 years of fudge-making experience.
It didn't even come close to setting. I was puzzled. Then I thought about America in 1970. And I realized that in middle America in the 1960s, "ginger" was assumed to mean "crystallized ginger". Of course fresh ginger has a much higher moisture content, thus my result: ginger ice cream topping (which I poured in a jar and gave my ginger-loving father for Xmas). I tried the recipe with crystallized ginger and lo and behold, it came out perfectly.
But the experience taught me a lot about the role of assumptions in reading a recipe.
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Try making hot chocolate to use up the fudge flop.
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According to my husband, who's a native Southerner and the resident fudge expert, fudge will not set properly unless it's "fudge weather". Another Southern, fudge-making friend seconds this. They insist that low humidity is essential for success.
I don't believe the Weather Channel has gotten around to recognizing "fudge weather" as an official meteorological event yet, however.
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Your fudge will be grainy if you stir the syrup while it is cooking. Maybe one of the professionally trained cooks reading this can explain the physics of why this happens---I read it somewhere but don't remember. But there are several things you can do to keep it from happening. 1) Absolutely do not stir a boiling sugar syrup when you are making candy as stirring will cause crystals to form. 2) Take a fork with a damp napkin wrapped around its tines and use it to wipe down the sides of the pan while the syrup is boiling. 3) Keep a lid on the pan for the first 60 seconds after the boiling starts so that steam will dissolve any crystals forming on the sides of the pan. 4) And in general remember that candy you want to be creamy should cooked at a lower heat than candy you want to be hard and crackly, like lollipops.
As for the soft ball test, it isn't difficult. Fill a teacup about 2/3 full with cold water and put an ice cube in it so the water gets nice and cold. Then use the tip of a spoon to get just a bit of the boiling syrup on it and drop this into the cold water. If the ball comes apart, the syrup is nowhere near ready. If it forms a cohesive ball that you can kind of pick up with your fingers, that's soft ball stage. If the ball turns to caramel, you're 'way past where you want to be. Actually I find the soft ball test works better for me than the candy thermometer, apologies to the scientists among us.
Finally, if your fudge is grainy or too hard or too soft or in some way is unsuitable to eat as candy, add a couple of teaspoons of water to it and microwave to melt it then serve it on ice cream as hot fudge sundaes. A tablespoon of rum wouldn't hurt either.
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everyone's ideas have been good to ponder...i probably did a combination of everything...not quite hot enough --didn't test for softball although i DO have a clip-on thermometer, i just assumed it was "close enough" to 238--didn't beat it hard enough, AND i stirred it while it was heating...i didn't know that was another possible cause! i don't really know why i kept stirring it, the recipe didn't call for that, but it also didn't say NOT to stir. d'oh!
i'm definitely eager to try again, but i don't feel right about throwing the current batch out completely--but i also feel like the calories/fat we will consume might mean a new batch shouldn't come again too soon.
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Besides the three types of fudge mentioned -- regular, marshmallow fluff, and cream cheese, let us not forget the condensed milk kind (or is it evaporated milk?). I've got a recipe somewhere in my disorganized stack
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what's the taste difference between all these kinds? i'm assuming the one i used was "regular" but i can't vouch for the taste because it basically tastes like sugar crystals. oddly addictive, though.
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A question was raised about the different types of "fudge" and fudge-like confections, and how they taste. I'll give you the benefit of my candy-making evolution, having gone through the phases of each one of these.
Fluff fudge: texture somewhat like compressed nougat. The flavor is sweet but still somewhat light in comparison to other fudges.
Cream Cheese fudge: I think this really shouldn't even be included in fudge, as it's its own category. This has a texture very much like cream cheese in density, while not being so soft. The sourness gives depth to the chocolate, but also masks some of the chocolate's flavor notes. I wouldn't recommend wasting expensive baking chocolate on this one. Since the fat content is so high in this fudge, it has a protein-fat mouthfeel rather than a candied-sugar mouthfeel. Both are good -- but this is more akin to a solidified frosting or icing than to what traditionalists call fudge.
Condensed Milk fudge (and also evaporated milk fudge):
Condensed milk (also called Eagle Brand milk) fudge can be made in the traditional, boil-to-a-soft-ball stage manner, but will have a distintly different texture. It is ultra un-sticky, in a way that traditional sugar fudge never is. It's hard to explain the texture if you've never tasted it -- but it sort of is like the fudge is coated with teflon. It holds its shape, but it still soft. The flavor isn't bad, but the texture is strange to me. To many people, growing up in the 40s and 50s, this is the fudge they remember. It was the "Fluff" fudge of that era, as it was easier than making traditional fudge.
Evaporated milk fudge is a subheading under this topic, as this can be substituted for the milk in a traditional fudge recipe. I think it was probably brought in either to be able to make fudge without fresh milk, or to add a measure of creaminess without adding extra fat. I'm not sure, but the one recipe I tried with it made a sort of lifeless fudge -- with neither with that sugary "bite" of the traditional, or the appealing softness of cream cheese fudge, or the lightness of Fluff fudge. I didn't try any more recipes. If there's a good one out there that uses this, I'd be interested to hear.
Traditional Fudge: Is a mixture of unsweetened chocolate, a small amount of butter, milk, salt, sugar, and vanilla. It is cooked to the softball stage and then beaten half to death. Depending on the weather, and the amount you are making, this can take more than 15 minutes. This is not a convenience food, or quick or easy. It is also not guaranteed to work, as other experienced candy-makers have pointed out. It's a pain, but it's worth it. When it's done correctly, the sugar dissolves completely and no crystals remain. The sugar becomes a cutable solid, with a firm texture but no grittiness. Since there is only a small amount of fat, the flavor of chocolate really shines through. When this is done right, there is no mistaking the real thing.
It also dries out pretty quickly if not properly covered. It's a pretty sure bet if you can crumble it around the edges that it's the real thing. That is, if you couldn't already tell from the taste.
The only substitute for the real thing that I've ever found to come even close is an old recipe that I found for something called "Chocolate Butter Fudge". I would put this in a separate category too, a butter-fudge one. This is made with unsweetened chocolate, a small amount of corn syrup, white sugar, a massive amount of butter, and unflavored gelatin! It's not an easy substitute, however, since it still has to be cooked to the soft ball stage, then beaten for just as long as traditional fudge. The difference is that this has a much richer, less chocolate-centric flavor. The chocolate flavor is less pure, but it is still intense since all that butterfat conveys the chocolate flavor beautifully. This turns into a slightly sticky, soft-ish but still cutable fudge, which has a slightly greasy surface. It's not quite as matte as traditional fudge, and is slightly lighter in color. I've found, in my years of holiday entertaining, that more people seem to like this fudge rather than traditional fudge. Strange to say, but the firm texture and assertive flavor of traditional fudge doesn't invite as much nibbling as this softer, more accesible, higher-fat fudge (and that can be a good and a bad thing both!). However, that butter-fudge I'd not characterize as traditional fudge -- just a different take on traditional candy-making. I still like traditional fudge the best, but only make it once a year, and I usually don't give it away as a gift like I do with the butter-fudge.
I think there may be even more kinds of fudge out there than this. Yum.
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i think you are too quick to dismiss cream cheese fudge, saying not to waste expensive chocolate on it, yet are quite happy to recommend a butter filled, gelatinized version. i disagree that the cream cheese masks the chocolate flavor.there are many cakes and frostings featuring chocolate and sour cream, for example, because the tang of sour cream (and in the case of this fudge-- cream cheese) complements and enhances chocolate. certainly, IMO, anyone who would even dream of eating marshmellow fluff fudge(i wouldnt), might well enjoy cream cheese fudge, which is much tastier, with a stronger chocolate flavor. it satisfies the chocolate urge, it's much easier to make than cooked fudge, and never fails.i find traditional fudge, even when it's well made, to taste more of sugar than chocolate.
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Hi Joan -- I'm sorry if I offended any cream-cheese fudge proponents out there! I think I probably should have put a "IMO" next to my recommendation not to use the Valhrona for your next batch of cream-cheese fudge. My experience, having made a few batches of the stuff, was that I couldn't taste the difference between the best chocolate I could afford, and regular Hershey's unsweetened chococlate. The cream cheese flavor to me is pretty dominant, more so than the butter in that old-fashioned butter fudge recipe. That certainly doesn't mean it isn't good -- just that my taste detected more cream cheese flavor than chocolate varietal character.
I didn't mean to recommend this butter and gelatin recipe to anyone -- I didn't post the recipe. I was explaining how the differences in ingredients affect the taste. I agree with you that it sounds pretty unappealing -- currently this is only recipe I make involving gelatin of any sort. I made it once on a request and was surpised and gratified by the way it conveyed the flavor of the Scharfenberg chocolate that I used in it. All those winey notes were brought to the forefront, like in a traditional fudge recipe.
I humbly submit that this is a matter of taste -- cream cheese fudge is a very good confection indeed, good or better than traditional or Fluff fudge depending on your tastes. My focus, which I suppose I should have stated more clearly, was on how the chocolate flavor was conveyed, and also what the texture of the finished product is. You are not alone in not liking traditional fudge and finding it too sugary for your tastes. I admire it's simplicity and the platform it creates for the character of the baking chocolate to really appear and show itself. I found this done similarly in the butter-gelatin fudge recipe, with a more accessible texture and softness.
Please accept my apologies, and, if I could hand you a square of fudge too, as peace offering, I would!
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dear mrs. smith, no apologies necessary. i was trying to defend cream cheese fudge,and i certainly wasnt personally insulted. i also didnt mean to attack you or traditional fudge. and while i dont believe i said that the gelatinized version sounds bad, it really does! thanks for the clear descriptions, and i am more than happy to imagine sharing a piece of (traditional) fudge with you. joan
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WOW.
what a great, detailed post! thanks!
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Delighted that my post elicited your excellent reply. I'm saving it to my files. Thanks!
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don't some traditional fudge recipes also have cream in them? i believe the fudge my aunt makes every year has tons of cream in it. it's quite devastating.
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I haven't seen it, but a small amount of cream (replacing the milk) would seem logical, and would probably work.
A lot of cream is something else, though. If your grandmother's recipe has a significant amount of cream in it (more than a cup), it's really a cream candy and not technically a fudge.
Although, who really cares about such distinctions. I love cream candy, though I've never made or tasted a chocolate cream candy fudge-type confection. That sounds more like a cooked/boiled ganache, which is a beast I confess I didn't know existed.
If you do have a recipe and are willing to share (and won't offend your grandmother), I'd love to see it. Always on the lookout for more good old-fashioned (or new-fashioned as the case may be) homemade candy!
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I usually make fudge with the milk on hand, which is nonfat. Then one day I decided to use up some half and half I had in the fridge.
It made a significant difference in the mouthfeel of the fudge -- almost too fatty and slightly cloying. Cream of course would be even more so.
Some people might like that, but I think it throws off the chocolate/sugar/fat balance of the fudge. Whole milk is probably optimal.
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calories be damned--i decided to try again because i had nothing to do on friday night. heck, if that's not a good reason for wanting fudge, what is?
used the same recipe as before, from foodtv.com. followed advice in clipping thermometer to pot, testing for softball stage, no stirring while boiling, and letting it cool to 110 degrees before touching it again.
STILL didn't set!
so now i'm thinking my problem is in the beating stage. the taste is much better now, by the way, significantly less crystallization, but still a tad sugary. much yummier though, i think it will at least make good hot chocolate or ice cream topping, which the last batch was far too sugary for. anyway, everyone here has said "beat it to death" but what does that mean? the recipe said to beat until it starts to lose gloss and thicken. well...it certainly STARTED to. what sort of texture am i aiming for? should it be stiff enough that it needs to be scraped out rather than poured into a pan? i don't have an electric beater and thought i was at it quite some time, but maybe i just wasn't vigorous enough.
anyway, i just wanted to make sure i have narrowed down my problem properly...
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how are you beating it? don't use an electric beater; just a wooden spoon, and only beat in one direction.
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basically, yeah...beating it like i would beat scrambled eggs...
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You guys are getting a little farfetched!
Fudge that is cooked to the correct temperature will set (or harden) eventually -- the beating really only makes a difference as to the consistency. The direction "beat until it loses its gloss" sounds vague, but when it happens, you'll recognize it immediately -- not only does it lose its gloss, but it becomes much more opaque looking. Then you only have a short amount of time to spoon it out of the pan before it hardens.
Maybe the thermometer was off, or maybe it hadn't completely gone through the soft ball stage. One thing that I've found is that the temperature rises fairly quickly to just below the soft ball point, then sort of stalls. If I'm remembering my chemistry after all these years, when a substance gets to the temperature where it starts to change structure, some the energy being applied is absorbed as part of the molecular change, and thus the substance doesn't increase in temperature as rapidly.
Anyway, when the thermometer shows soft ball stage, you should also use the cold water test (dribble a little of the fudge mixture into a bowl of very cold water -- it should harden into a ball you can pinch between your fingers, but not hold its shape).
But don't worry about stirring it in one direction!
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You should test the accuracy of you thermometer with boiling water before trying again. And what about trying a different recipe? Maybe something's off in the proportions or something, and it's not you that's failing, but a bad recipe.
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Ugh, Nancy, what a drag. Don't lose heart -- it doesn't sound as if you have, though, which is good. Remember, fudge is not easy, and it is very fickle. Every time you have a failure, you can learn more things about candy-making, and get some darn good ice-cream topping, too.
I agree with the advice on testing your thermomenter in boiling water, and also agree with Ruth on not worrying about beating in one direction. The soft ball test in water I don't do myself, but it sounds like an excellent double-check.
My only question, and possible excuse for your poor un-hardened fudge is -- was it humid that night? Is your kitchen a particularly humid atmosphere? That can throw any fudge out of whack.
I agree, though -- move on to another recipe now.
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well, it feels like normal humidity to me...usually it's too hot but lately it's been fine. i put the fudge in the fridge anyway...don't know if humidity of the room affects the inside of the fridge.
will definitely be trying a new recipe, thanks for the advice!
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When did you put it in the fridge?
I can't think of any reason to ever put it in the fridge! That would certainly cause all kinds of problems.
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really? i thought it was ok to let it chill in the fridge rather than just leaving it out?? is that only for other types of fudge? for the last experiment, i had let it sit out for quite some time and it was so soft i thought putting it in the fridge would speed up the hardening. since there were so many other possible reasons for it not setting last time, i didn't think that putting it in the fridge had anything to do with it, so i didn't think anything of doing it again...so you're saying it does matter?? i looked at multiple recipes since the first failure when i was trying to figure out what the problem could have been...and i'm sure a few said to chill the fudge until hard...
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For uncooked "fudges" (with cream cheese or marshmallow fluff or sweetened condensed milk) you generally chill them (basically what you are doing is melting chocolate, adding something to make it creamier and fluffier, and then letting it solidify), but cooked fudge is a whole different set of physical and chemical reactions. Chilling a cooked fudge in the fridge probably caused condensation of the steam from the hot mixture and may explain why it didn't set properly.
Just take the pan off the burner and let it cool at room temp to 110 degrees (this takes a while -- go do something else), at which point it should be glossy and have a consistency of gooey corn syrup. Then beat it until it loses its gloss, becomes more opaque and starts to hold its shape. What this does it aerate the fudge so that when it hardens tiny amounts of air are trapped in it, giving traditional fudge its distinctive texture.
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Candy-making that involves boiling sugar is one area where precision is key.
Follow the recipe *exactly*. Small differences in anything from the size of the pan to the temperature to the ingredients can make the difference between success and abject failure.
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final update: i decided to give it one more try, going in determined to make stuff worthy of being given away. although i intended to try a different recipe, i still wanted to go for the traditional ingredients, just in possibly different proportions than i had previously used. but searching the internet kept bringing up recipes with evaporated milk or fluff or cream cheese and since i had none of those ingredients on hand, i went ahead with the old recipe i'd already tried before. this time i let it heat to 240 and cool to 100 before touching it, and i noticed it was MUCH more cohesive than the other times, when it was like stirring brownie batter.
it's WONDERFUL. i'm so excited to show my friends! (i'm a dork). it's set (started firming up within 10 minutes!), and SO delicious and creamy. really not too sugary at all, although i don't know if this particular recipe uses less sugar (3 cups) and more butter (4 tablespoons) than usual...but it's a great consistency and mouthfeel...YUM. thanks to everyone for their help...i finally know how to make fudge!
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I'm so glad you finally got it.
It's satisfying, isn't it? And you feel so much more entitled to eat it when you've worked to hard to make it [vbg]!
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final update: i decided to give it one more try, going in determined to make stuff worthy of being given away. although i intended to try a different recipe, i still wanted to go for the traditional ingredients, just in possibly different proportions than i had previously used. but searching the internet kept bringing up recipes with evaporated milk or fluff or cream cheese and since i had none of those ingredients on hand, i went ahead with the old recipe i'd already tried before. this time i let it heat to 240 and cool to 100 before touching it, and i noticed it was MUCH more cohesive than the other times, when it was like stirring brownie batter.
it's WONDERFUL. i'm so excited to show my friends! (i'm a dork). it's set (started firming up within 10 minutes!), and SO delicious and creamy. really not too sugary at all, although i don't know if this particular recipe uses less sugar (3 cups) and more butter (4 tablespoons) than usual...but it's a great consistency and mouthfeel...YUM. thanks to everyone for their help...i finally know how to make fudge!
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