Louise's fudge

[burgundyice]

So...
My Mum has always been able to make lovely crumbly "grainy" fudge - I prefer it this way compared to the squidgy stuff you buy - and decided I ought to acquire this important life skill for myself!
A couple of weeks ago I got the recipe from her and had a try, well I was there standing over the pan for AGES and all I was left with was a kind of liquid fudge sauce... which would have been fine, except I really wanted fudge, and in a vain attempt I put it in the fridge overnight to try and make it set.... needless to say it didn't work and had to throw the stuff away
I scoured the internet and decided I must have used too much liquid/not enough sugar, so when I got an evening to myself I made up my own recipe and was thrilled with the result!!!
Dark, caramel-y, crumbly yummy fudge!! I took a photo for posterity


So here is my recipe... (rough measurements only sorry )
- Almost a whole 500g bag of caster sugar
- Less than quarter of a large tin of evaporated milk (the full-size tin, not the half-size)
- About half a tablespoon of Stork margarine

Method:
Melt the sugar & evaporated milk together in a saucepan (mine is just a small milk pan)
Keep it stirring & moving at all times! - Some of the internet recipes said not to stir it at all - in which case it would surely stick to the pan & burn!?
Once all melted in, add the margarine & melt in
Mixture starts to bubble, turn darker and smell like real fudge! (this never happened with my failed attempt because there was too much liquid in it) It also expands in size (almost boiled over my little pan )
After about 15/20 mins, test it by dropping some into a bowl of cold water (careful!!! sugar recipes get very very hot!) .... if it turns into squidgy caramel stuff, it's just about ready )
Take off the heat and beat it like mad with a wooden spoon - you'll eventually notice around the sides it starts to set - eventually it all thickens up & turns from glossy to duller - getting harder & harder to stir
Now is the time to pour it into a greased dish (pyrex is good) - it starts setting almost straightaway and is very tempting but still very hot(!!)
Finally, sorry, no idea how many calories, in fact I wouldn't like to think about it!

Going to use up the rest of the milk & make some more tonight

Louise

[Slinky]

Oh my goodness what a fabulous recipe!! I am SO going to try that! Thanks

(Have you heard of tablet? It's a Scottish fudge, known for it's crumbly texture. Sounds like what your Mum makes!)

[coffee_freak]

yum!

[Sarah Gixxer]

Yummy!

Is it my imagination or does the piece at the top left of the picture look as if it was made with a fish shaped mould?

[~threadbear~]

Haha, I was thinking that piece looked fish like as well Sarah.
Looks yummy anyhow.

*Wonders if chocolate drizzled (not too thinly of course ) over it would make it even yummier ... *

[burgundyice]

(Have you heard of tablet? It's a Scottish fudge, known for it's crumbly texture. Sounds like what your Mum makes!)

I have, and it's lovely too, but has more of a "buttery" flavour where I was looking for a "caramely" flavour I get it in Thorntons although probably more expensive than making my own! (and possibly not as good as real Scottish butter tablet!)


Sarah, Threadbear, yes, I can see the fish piece now you mention it!!

Louise

[Mabel Figworthy]

sounds scrumptious -- will have to try that!

Few questions -- how much less than a whole bag of sugar? And how big is a big tin of evaporated milk? And is evaporated milk like condensed milk? (In the Netherlands we only get the thick sugary milky stuff, which they call condensed, but I'm never quite sure how evaporated is different)

[burgundyice]

Oops, I just spent ages doing a reply to this and a link to evaporated milk and then closed the wrong window
Anyway....
I'd say I used 80% (or more.......) of the bag of sugar so... 400g
Evaporated [Carnation] Milk - they do condensed as well, but my mum advised that evaporated is the one to get the crumbly fudge, whereas condensed makes the squidgy fudge This link looks like a small tin though - the one I got was twice the size, and I used just over half an inch depth of it (hope that makes sense - there was half an inch worth's 'empty' when I'd poured it in)......

Louise

[Mabel Figworthy]

sorry to keep asking, but might it say on the tin how much it was? (As you've still got some left I assume you've still got the tin, although you may of course have decanted it)

[maggs]

This looks good enough to eat

[burgundyice]

Well, I made some more last night with a small tin - 170g, I did two batches and just had a tiny bit left in the tin by the end. I'm sorry I can't be more precise Mabel! I just cook by instinct, if it looks dry I add a bit more milk, if it's not thickening up I add more sugar...
Both turned out well, although the first was already a lot thicker when I poured it out of the pan, so it didn't settle as well as the second lot, still tastes nice!

Louise

[Mabel Figworthy]

I'm usually the chuck-in-whatever-you-happen-to-have-in-the-cupboard sort of cook, but if I do something for the first time, and to someone else's recipe, I do try to get the measurements as exact as I can. But adding whatever seems needed is a good way of doing it!