Here's a link to a thread which might be helpful.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: stuff ya just can't rush

I have always read that if you stir AFTER a certain point it will make the fudge grainy. Since that is the way I like it, I stir with impunity!

This is a recipe given to my by a classmate when I was in grad school. I've used often, but I can't remember if it is grainy or not. Seeing that it was many years ago when I was in grad school, and seeing how my metabolism has changed, I rarely make fudge, but I remember it was very tasty!

2 cups sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 small can evaporated milk
2 Tablespoons Karo syrup (clear)
chopped pecans to taste
3 Tablespoons butter
vanilla extract to taste

Boil first 4 ingredients to soft ball stage. Cool in a sink of cold water. While cooling, add pecans, butter, and vanilla. When cool, spread on buttered plate until set.

My mom used to make the Hershey's cocoa fudge from the recipe on the can and it was always grainy. I love it that way, too!

The poster here says it's a sugary (I read grainy), crumbly fudge and it's the original recipe from the can.

Here is a link that might be useful: Old fashioned cocoa fudge at food.com

Grainy is not what I am looking for when making fudge. I love a smooth creamy texture. But that said, if you want grainy, just overcook it slightly. Just past the softball stage.

~Ann

Ann,
If you're right, that would explain everything because my mother could overcook anything. The woman could burn jello.

KimKa

I like it that way too. It is not fudge, to me, unless it is grainy because that is the way my dad made it every Christmas since before I was born, and that is almost 61 years ago. This is the old fashion crumbly, sugary fudge from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa can. He would use the "soft ball" test and I was the one who got to eat all the tests!
Clare

Hershey's Fudge
3 cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Line 8 or 9 inch square pan with foil; butter foil.
2. In large heavy saucepan stir together first three ingredients; stir in milk, with a wooden spoon*.
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a full rolling boil.
4. Boil without stirring, to 234 degrees F on a candy thermometer (or until syrup, when dropped in very cold water forms a soft ball which flattens when removed from water). Bulb of candy thermometer should not rest on bottom of pan. (This can take 20-30 minutes).
5. Remove from heat. Add butter & vanilla.
6.DO NOT STIR! Cool at room temperature to 110 degrees F (lukewarm). (This can take 2 to 2-1/2 hours).
7. Beat with wooden spoon until fudge thickens & loses some of its gloss. (This can take 15-20 minutes. It really works best if you have someone to 'tag-team' with.) It starts to look more like frosting than a thick syrup when it is ready.
8. Quickly spread into prepared pan; cool.
9. Cut into squares.Store wrapped loosely in foil in the refrigerator.

*it is very important not to use a wire whisk or the fudge will not set up. Also just stir gently, even though the cocoa will stay floating on top, it will mix in as the mixture heats up.

Today in my email from The Kitchn was a recipe for Classic Chocolate Fudge. The description: This fudge is not the creamy, smooth kind. It has a dense, textured chewiness as you bite into it and it kind of shatters and then melts in your mouth.

The recipe notes that the fudge will be grainy if you stir it too much while it is cooking. I'll be stirring with reckless abandon!

Here is a link that might be useful: The Kitchn Easy Chocolate Fudge

I miss the grainy fudge my grandpa used to make. My Mom swears she's using his recipe but I know she's not likely to stir much, so that explains the (wrong IMO!) texture. Grandpa's was much more of something to chew. Mom's just melts. But hey, I'm just glad somebody's making some fudge sometimes!!

I agree with ann_t...just overcook a little. Or have me come and make it for you. :)

My mom always made a type of fudge that was rather grainy. The recipe came from the side of the box of confectioners sugar. I still make this from time to time, as do each of my daughters now that they're grown. It is quick fudge, no candy thermometer needed.

QUICK FUDGE

6 tbsp margarine, melted
1 lb confectioners sugar
1/4 cup cocoa (Hersheys or similar)
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
3-4 tbsp milk

Butter an 8" square pan. (We always used a pie plate and it works too.) Melt the margarine in a 3 qt saucepan. Add the sugar, cocoa, salt. Stir well. Add the vanilla and the milk. Let the mixture heat up until it barely bubbles.

Pour carefully into the buttered pan. Let cool until hard. Cut into however many squares you want.

Watch out -- very sweet, very rich, and grainy.

Donna

HAHAHAHA

I loved my mom's grainy fudge - we never had a candy thermometer and I didn't really understand the soft ball stage, so I appreciate seeing what that means. I always thought it meant if you just dropped it in the water it would just sit there in a little ball. That never worked!

I tried, as a teen, making it many times, only to always have chocolate sauce. So one time I decided I was going to cook it so long it HAD to set up. Mom wasn't home. So I cooked and cooked and cooked it. I cooked it so long I couldn't get the spoon out of the pan, nor the fudge of course. Worried I'd be in big trouble for ruining the pan and wasting the ingredients, I threw (hid) the pan in the garbage can. Never made it again.

Took my mom a long time to realize that pan was missing. I never fessed up. And I still have fudge making anxiety.

For those that like a firm but creamy smooth fudge, you might like this recipe.

White Chocolate and Toasted Walnut Fudge

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup cream
1/2 cup of butter
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup of white Corn Syrup
6 to 8 ounces Callebaut White Chocolate
Walnuts
2 teaspoons vanilla

Add the two sugars, butter, cream, corn syrup and salt into a sauce pan. Place over medium heat. Stir while bringing to a boil. Lower the Heat and continue to stir slowly while the mixture cooks. After about 7 minutes, test by pouring a small amount into some cold water. You Want it to form a soft ball. (about 235�F to 238�F on a candy thermometer) When it reaches soft ball stage, remove from the heat, and let rest for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add the vanilla and the white chocolate and stir until the white chocolate melts. You will notice the the fudge starts to thicken almost immediately. Stir another minute or two or until the fudge starts to lose its shine. Quickly add the walnuts and pour into a buttered dish.

Kind of OT, sorry, but this thread totally reminds me of a flourless chocolate cake I always request from my mom on my birthday, along with the obligatory Sauerbraten. It's a hand-written recipe passed down the family line of an Austrian friend... Anyway, the way my mom makes it, the cake always has a crunch from the undissolved sugar. At first we wondered if it was an problem with the type of sugar, thought maybe try superfine sugar instead, and we had a few other hypothesese, but then we decided we actually like the crunch factor. Though still curious, I can tell you I wouldn't want it any other way!

My grandmother, and mom, made this all the time. My grandma even made pound cakes as the gritty fudge as icing..Amazing once its cooled.. for my birthday each year when I was young. My mom still does thos for my dad every year.

Basically you make the recipe found on the old Hershey cocoa cans, but you stir CONSTANTLY while at a hard boil until tit thickens up...then spread onto buttered pan (Real butter is better than sprays or shortening for this) or pour, before its too thick to do so, over a cooled cake. Then cool in fridge. Gritty, crunchy, and awesome. I have begun topping it with crushed, honey roasted peanuts as soon as it's on the cake or in the pan. Adds a little something extra ;-) Or... Just have me come make it for you. Every woman, and a few men, in my family has been making it since childhood for generations!

I am sure glad Houzz doesn't purge old conversations. The newer Hershey's Cocoa cans (odd name since they're now made of cardboard) don't have the fudge recipe.

Thank you for the recipe. It will be immortalized on a proper recipe card and put in the binder of saved recipes from my grandmom.

I also like gritty fudge I tried a lot of times to make it and messed it up but finally I got it they way to make it dry and grainy is to stir it constantly because when u stir it it causes the sugars to crystalize so the main thing is to stir it when it's hot and stir when it's cooling after u remove it from the burner all the constant stirring is what causes all the sugar crystals to form and also as soon as u get it onto the pans get it into the fridge and then you will have dry grainy fudge o

I understand the quality in the fudge that the poster is looking for. I dont much care for smooth, creamy kind of fudge.

But, I wonder if grainy is the right description for what is being sought.

When I think of "grainy" I think of sugar crystals. But, what I miss about the old fashioned fudge is what I would be inclined to refer to as a flakiness, or a layered texture.

Have you ever had melted chocolate seize up ? I wonder if that is part of the chemistry that makes the texture that the poster is looking for.

Since I dont make fudge, it is not something that concerns me, but I do know the quality that is being sought. I thought that was the quality that all fudge had until I got older and would go somewhere that actually advertise it's fudge, only to be disappointed that it didnt have that same texture.

Sometimes I crave a piece of old fashioned fudge, but have learned that these fancy little shops that sell it will be disappointing.

We need someone schooled in food chemistry to explain it.

I really think that chocolate that seizes and the fudge that we seek share a bit of chemistry.

Sugar crystals are not what is being sought. Sugar crystals are the ruin of any candy.

Agree, fudge @ a store seems to all be made from HFCS or something else that is ruining it. It doesn't break. Fudge should break. Kilwin's is my most recent disappointment. If you want to go there just for fudge, don't bother I say.

This is just so weird, how 10 year old threads pop back up. They appear over on the right side of the screen and if you click them, voila! Here's a thread over a decade old. Yet you can't find a new one when you search for it, LOL.

Annie

LOL, Annie! It's still an important topic I guess. : )

The classic Hershey’s cocoa fudge is the absolute best, but it’s such a pain to make. This Christmas I made Fantasy Fudge with marshmallow creme…it was so much faster and easier!! And it tasted pretty good too…not as firm, of course, but pretty darn good, and certainly a reasonable subsitute for old-time Hershey’s fudge when hungry college kids are home for the holidays.

lovemycorgi, I always use the Fantasy Fudge recipe, much easier on my carpal tunnel than beating that traditional fudge. It's not exactly the same, of course, but the kids gobble it up and I only make fudge at Christmas anyway.

Annie