Peanut butter.

Real fudge with butter, milk, sugar and Hershey's cocoa. That other stuff isn't fudge.

Is it true you can't make fudge on a humid day? It rains all winter in the PNW and I want to make fudge!

I haven't eaten fudge in a very, very long time, but my fave used to be the one that came from a recipe on the Hershey's Cocoa container. It was dense, super chocolate-y and more crystalline, not soft and creamy like the one my mom made every Christmas with condensed milk and chocolate chips.

We also made a lot of penuche fudge, growing up, which had a similar crystalline texture. Both were boiled to soft ball stage, then beaten until thick - is that what you mean by old fashioned?

And maple walnut sounds yummy!

I really don't eat fudge - too rich and too sweet for me - but I often make for holiday gifts. Rocky road is my favorite (also my ice cream flavor of choice). It rarely comes out of the pan in clean, perfect squares, so any 'trimmings' are my occasional taste of fudge :-)

And yes, you can make fudge in the PNW 👍

Marshmallow and chips. The other kind never really sets like I prefer. Different strokes!

Basic fudge recipe with Heath chips in it.

Butter pecan. I don't remember how I used to make it, been years. I had it on my old computer but not the new one.

Blueberry cheesecake fudge is my favorite. I don't make it, but buy it at a flea market in Rodgers Ohio. A gentleman makes it. I have had others but nothing compares to his blueberry cheesecake fudge. We only go once a year to the flea market and I always make sure I find him.

Crap. Now I'm going to have to make fudge tomorrow. Peanut butter the old-fashioned way. :)

What time should I head over?

I love fudge! Haven't had for so long, though. I like basic chocolate. I would like maple as well.

Firm and chocolate--not gooey. But ever since I learned how to make fudge I lost any desire to eat it. Same with NY cheesecake, except that I actually like good fudge. :)

I like vanilla fudge and it isn't easy to find any more. Too many other kinds of fancy fudges these days. I've never made it myself.

In college there was a shop that sold small squares of fudge atop of an equal height layer of oatmeal. That was a delicious way to cut the sweetness of the milk chocolate. I have never made fudge, just may try my hand at it if I find a recipe like that one.

Hershey's cocoa=REAL fudge??? That's different. I already add a pound of butter...cocoa would require twice that I imagine. Well my mom has a Fanny Farmer recipe that is "real fudge' the only fudge, they height of Christmas tastes and smells. Never quite understood the fudge counters at specialty shops. Fudge all year? Blasphemous! When I married I learned of DH's family way of making fudge. I guess if you boil fudge longer it gets dryer and dryer??? Not really sure how that makes it better but that's their way, they want it to SNAP when you bite into it. Ours was always soft and creamy. The recipe I have calls for chocolate chips, evaporated milk and sugar, lots and lots of sugar and butter. It makes a jelly roll pan and again depending on how long you boil it (mom's always had to stay frozen ) it gets pretty soft. I have lengthened the boiling time a bit so it keeps it's easily picked up once defrosted. I am guessing a REAL candy maker would start with high end raw chocolate morsels. I am not burdened with a picky palate that would notice the difference. For quick, easy fail proof with a fabulous presentation I have made Rachel Ray's five-minute Fudge Wreath.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/five-minute-fudge-wreath-recipe-2013658

I have made a lot of fudge recipes over the years, but still # 1 with me is the recipe from the Hershey's cocoa can that my Mom made in the 1950's. She cooked it in a 9" cast iron skillet and usually added a large spoon full of peanut butter to it. I always did it the way she did. If I had a cast iron skillet, I'd go make some right now!

Real boiled fudge with pecans, much better than the soft stuff. Yes, don't try to make real fudge when it's humid - it will never set.

For me, "old fashioned home made" fudge is the one with evaporated milk (2 cups sugar, 2/3 cup evap milk, 1/2 cup butter, 12 marshmallows. Melt and boil 5 minutes, take off heat, stir in 1 cup choc chips + 1 tsp either vanilla or coffee flavor). Simple enough that mom could trust us to make it without messing up the kitchen too badly. Very rarely have I had the candy-counter fancy fudge -- it's good, sure, but I'd rather save my money and calories for something better.

Once I had Scottish Tablet -- a buttery, milk-sugary confection related to fudge. I remember it as being spectacular!

Copper Kettle Fudge from the shop on the Ocean City NJ boardwalk. I like vanilla.

To me, the only 'real' fudge, is the old-fashioned kind, made with cocoa, granulated sugar, butter, etc., and cooked to just the right temperature. No chocolate chips, no marshmallow fluff and no confectioners sugar. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that type, it certainly is easier, almost 'fool-proof', and has its place in modern society. And everyone has different tastes (thank goodness!).

Now I'm wanting to make fudge!

Rusty

So funny...I love chocolate...I am not a fan of fudge...it's "too" ... too sweet, too chewy, too grainy...I don't know, but give me chocolate instead, any time.

My Mom's Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge with English Walnuts in it. I have her recipe...have

had it for years...and never got any fudge that even came close to hers. Sigh. Maybe that's

the way it's supposed to be.

The "real" fudge. I agree it's the one on the cocoa can. In fact I tried making it with my 10 year old granddaughter yesterday. The candy thermometer fell into the boiling concoction and by the time I got it fetched back out (covered inside and out with chocolate) we decided it surely had hit the right temp. Wrong. I beat and beat and now have a container of fudge sauce. I'll try again today since I promised fudge for our Christmas Eve celebration. I may bring my sauce and a few spoons. I've eaten it that way a lot when we'd make it at sleepovers as a kid.

norar_il, that sauce is good over ice cream.

Chocolate with walnuts or maple walnut. I/we never make it. Probably haven't had any in more than a dozen years.

Been using the old See's recipe for years. Very rich and smooth. I only make it at Christmas.

Alton Brown has good instructions and recipe for fudge. Close to what my dad made.

I guess with all this talk I'll make some chocolate walnut fudge for the get-together New Years Eve. Kielbasa, sour kraut and choc, doesn't sound appetizing, but oh well. Lol. I know it will get eaten.

When I have made fudge it turns out grainy. So I don't make it. But my favorite to eat is peanut butter fudge, but vanilla sounds interesting.

My favorite? My mom's. Made from the Hershey's can recipe. I loved it so much; it was a little grainy and the top layer kind of had a crackle effect. I tried for YEARS to make it, but never could figure out the 'ball' stage. We didn't have a candy thermometer, but I think the only instructions were to cook it to??? soft ball? hard ball stage. When I tried, I would either make chocolate caramel or chocolate sauce. One time when I was a teen, I was determined to overcome the usual chocolate sauce results and I boiled and boiled it. So much that the spoon and the pan and the mixture kind of melded into one big lump. I tried to soak it out before she got home from work, but it wouldn't budge, so in a panic, I threw it all into the garbage can. I think it was months or even years later when she remarked that she couldn't find this certain pan. :-( I'll pass on the creamy, evaporated or condensed milk, marshmallow version. It's not the fudge I grew up on and love.
Eileen, it's divinity that is difficult to make when it's humid, not fudge. I never mastered that, either.

Plain vanilla. No chocolate and no other additions. But I haven't made or eaten any for years. It’s something I might buy for a gift If I’m away in a cream producing area, like Devon.

Graininess comes from not letting the syrup boil undisturbed or it could be bringing it to a boil too fast.

Soft ball means you dribble a little of the fudge into a cold cup of water, if you can form it into a ball in the water without it falling apart it has reached soft ball stage.

In the deep south fudge will not setup on a humid day. The cause is not being able to boil enough water out to get the proper chemical consistency.

An elderly friend of mine loves the Fannie May fudge, so I made a batch of that for her. I guess she made it for decades. It worked out great, but personally I prefer the Hershey's recipe.

Hey thanks for sharing that Hershey's recipe!

We made fudge and penuche every Christmas, but sometimes in the evening I'd get a craving for a sweet and I'd asked my mother "Can we make fudge?" and she'd say "I'll make it if you'll beat it." So I've beaten a lot of fudge. We used the soft-ball method so I was well-versed on it.

The one and only time I tried to make fudge as an adult, I didn't trust my judgement of the soft-ball stage. So I overcooked it. It made a nice batch of Tootsie Rolls.

Graininess comes from sugar crystals forming on the sides of the pan above the boil line. You aren't supposed to stir them back into the boil.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/common-fudge-mistakes-and-how-to-fix-them/

Old fashioned brown sugar fudge. When I was a child the neighbour across the street used to make it. I haven't had it since. I would love to have an easy recipe for pralines. Our nut shop used to sell them.

Raye, I cannot even imagine humidity that high!! I fully understand the concept of ball stages but not the implementation. Seemed to me the ball just dissolved in the water.

I substitute cream for milk when I make fudge, but that is very rare, and I omit the salt altogether.

I noticed a lot of fudge shops in Sault Ste Marie when we were there a couple of years ago, and that was the last time I had fudge.

We also had fudge on Mackinac Island

Here's a recipe for Mackinac Island fudge.

Olychick, you have to be able to pick the ball up. My mother would make several tests of a spoonful of fudge in cold water. It was my job to try to pick it up (and eat it!)

olychick - I've made a lot of fudge over the years and yes, when properly boiled a little bit of the fudge dropped in cold water will hold together and can be formed in a ball.

Lars, thanks for the Mackinac links. I looked at their list of flavors and they all look so good I couldn't decide!!!

I know graininess is supposed to be a sign of poor quality fudge, but if it isn’t grainy, I’m not interested. And I really don’t like the marshamllow fluff stuff.

When I was in grad school, a fellow student gave me the recipe below. It is my favorite although I could not tell you the last time I made it.

The instructions are pretty sketchy.

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 small can evaporated milk

2 Tablespoons Karo syrup

pecans to taste

Mix all together. Boil to soft ball stage. Cool in sink* adding 3 Tablespoons of butter and vanilla to taste.

*this means a kitchen sink with cool water in it.

My favorite is maple walnut, but I have never made it. Seems like several years ago they were talking about that kind of fudge on the cooking forum. I was going to try to make some, but never did. I am not real keen about fudge.

To me the candy made with marshmallows is not fudge. I have my recipe from my home ec. class, way back in the day. It is a little different than Hershey's recipe but very similar. I also like it made with out chocolate, we called it white fudge.

Sue

Penuche. The bane of my mother's Christmas preparation during my childhood. I can no longer eat that kind of stuff, if I ever should have. My grandfather used to make it for the family. He was much older than my grandmother, and she was in her 40's when she had my Mom, so I have no memory of him. But my older cousin remembered him making it. He died of a heart attack when he was in his early 70's and my Mom was in college. My uncle carried on the tradition according to my cousin, but he died of a heart attack in his early 40's. My cousin died of a stroke in her mid 70's, so I think our family's sweet tooth has not done too well for us. Sigh.

Chocolate walnut, but I haven't eaten or made it in years. I have a foolproof recipe for the microwave that turns out surprising good!

velveeta fudge is really good