What did I do wrong fudge making!

BitterAndTwisted

I think cooking with sugar means the cooking temperature is critical to the outcome. A little bit hotter and it could have been tablet or even toffee. Do you have a confectioners' thermometer?

I don't think the fridge is the best place for your fudge-crumble. Have you tried heating it up again in a bain marie?

floyd

Does your recipe say to just throw in the choc chips or were they melted first? I have only ever seen chocolate fudge made using pre-melted choc that is mixed in before the beating stage while still warm so that it doesn't seize

purplestar1uk

Heating up again could be a good idea. Thank you! I'll give it a try and let you know later.

I don't have a sugar thermometer yet, I was hoping I could get away with not buying one, as this recipe doesn't discuss temperatures, but it's looking like I will have to get one.

Thanks for your help!

purplestar1uk

floyd wrote: »

Does your recipe say to just throw in the choc chips or were they melted first? I have only ever seen chocolate fudge made using pre-melted choc that is mixed in before the beating stage while still warm so that it doesn't seize

This sounds like exactly what happened! It said to just throw them in, but if I melted them first that might well have worked better.

purplestar1uk

Ok, this is what I have done.

I put the fudge crumbs into a pan with more butter, evaporated milk and sugar and some more chocolate chips and heated the whole lot up together (to prevent the 'seizing up' of adding cold to hot, which I suspect is what happened earlier).

I heated it up and stirred a lot. I boiled it for about 10 minutes, then took it off the heat, stirred some more, and put it into the baking tin.

I left it to cool and now it's in the fridge. It's looking a bit more like toffee than fudge, but I'll know better in a few hours.

Even if it does end up as toffee, at least that's edible!

From what I've read, underheating it means it won't set, and overheating it means it turns into toffee.

Goodness knows how this will turn out, but thanks so much for the guidance I've received so quickly!

purplestar1uk

Ok, it's a cross between fudge and toffee, but tasty. I suspect it will set harder.

I'm going to try again at some point with a different recipe, see if this looks like something I can master by Christmas!! All the practicing will cost me more than normal presents would have at this rate! So much for saving money by doing it myself ;-)

PollyFlinders_3

I've made fudge a few times over the last couple of years with varying amounts of success.

I would seriously recommend a sugar thermometer - it really has helped me to get the temperature right (all that soft-ball stuff is not the easiest to follow IMO). I would guess in your case the cold ingredients cooled the mixture too much, too quickly, and hence they went powdery.

I now use a recipe from the Good Housekeeping cookery book which is a godsend and pretty much infallible. Its really worth persevering - home made fudge is just fab if you can get it right. (I would recommend adding cherries instead of chocolate - very yummy).

purplestar1uk

Ok, so this morning I got it out of the fridge, and it was rock solid. I put it into the microwave for about 40 seconds just hoping to soften it enough to be able to cut it.

Once it had been microwaved I cut it into pieces (with scissors!!) and it is tasty! It tastes like fudge, but a slightly tough fudge - not as soft as I'd like, but really much better than I expected.

I bought a sugar thermometer this afternoon!!

floyd

Thanks for updating, its always handy to have some sort of conclusion to these troubleshooting threads as it helps others in the same situation in the future

purplestar1uk

floyd wrote: »

Thanks for updating, its always handy to have some sort of conclusion to these troubleshooting threads as it helps others in the same situation in the future

Ah that's a pleasure, I couldn't have done it without you guys!