Ah-ha! The start of the holiday season in our family means the start of the official fudge bake-off!
Okay, we’re not talking any old fudge recipe. The challenge DH and I have is to use an old recipe from the Hershey’s cocoa can that we are fairly sure is a farce. It’s a recipe that both our families have used and that we both have memories of tasting. However, neither of us can be sure we EVER tasted it when it wasn’t either gritty with granulated sugar or hard as cement. My mother, however, SWEARS that my grandmother could make this fudge recipe so smooth and rich that it would make your mouth water just thinking about it.
Over the years DH and I have competed with one another in the quest to make the perfect fudge batch from this recipe (in spite of secretly thinking the success of the recipe might be an urban legend). Some years we have served the fudge as ice cream topping when it refused to set, other years we have actually had to soak the fudge dish in a sink of hot soapy sink overnight to dislodge enough to toss it in the garbage (DH’s batch, not mine ).
This year I kicked off the season with the first attempt at the illusive Hershey fudge recipe. WAHOO!!!! It was by far the BEST batch I have EVER made!!! (Okay, I may never make another batch as perfect as this but THIS time it was PERFECT!!!) My grandmother must be smiling down on me.
It is actually creamy, soft but firm!
I am NOT a fudge fan. In fact, the ONLY fudge recipe I enjoy is this old recipe. Even when it turns out granular or hard, I love it. As soon as fudge gets the really soft, milk chocolate-like state, I hate it. I want the intense dark chocolate flavor without that dark chocolate. Oh, it is so hard to describe, but I know it when I taste it.
Anyway, I ignored DH’s tauntings and attempts to sabotage my fudge making efforts. I trusted my gut and refused to succumb to my inner doubts. I decided to trust my eyes and my hands.
As I waited for the fudge to cool before beating it, I resisted the urge to hurry the process and start beating it before it was really cool. I repeatedly chanted the word “Patience.” and when the time came to beat the fudge I refused to be rushed. I beat and paused. Observed the surface of the fudge and how it settled before continuing on.
Finally, and suddenly, it CHANGED. QUICK! I poured it into the buttered platter and then it happened…the perfect fudge!!!
Baaaawhaaaa!!!! Take THAT DH!
The gauntlet has been thrown! Let’s see if DH can match this batch without pleading for assistance…;-)
too funny christine. now, you have my mailing address right? i think perfect fudge will mail nicely. :>
ROTFL It is hard to make that fudge!! I swear I laughed so hard when I watched Alton Brown’s show on fudge, because it was only then that I realized my candy thermometer didn’t show cooling temp correctly…. oops…. and I still can’t get that stuff to come out right!!
ROFLOL I am awaiting the sequel to this!!!!! Hurray for Christine!!!!!!!!
Christine, my mother has been making that fudge ever since I can remember. We all love it and none of us four kids has managed to learn to make it the way she does. She makes several batches before Christmas, some with pecans and some without, and that is by far everyone’s favorite thing to eat when we go to her house. So good for you for making a perfect batch….believe me, that is saying something!