Week07 Chocolate and Peanut-butter Fudge

chocolate and peanut butter fudge

This week's recipe is dedicated to my great-grandmother, who I learned to cook with. Her favorite was peanut-butter fudge, and I loved it too.  The delivery portion is huge, so all peanut butter fudge seemed overkill, and this is a versatile recipe, so half the delivery is peanut butter, and half fudge.

The key ingredient for delicious fudge is marshmallow cream (or fluff), but it's very hard to find outside the US. Luckily, like most things, you can make it yourself at home!  It requires a sugar syrup, most people use corn-syrup, but I prefer the taste of golden syrup. Egg whites, salt, powdered-sugar, and vanilla. Start with all but the vanilla and powdered sugar.

marshmallow cream ingredients

You can see that all the ingredients are dark at the beginning.

dark beginnings

Then they get lighter as you whip,

and lighter,

and lighter.

After it's done getting light and fluffy, you add in sifted powdered sugar,

and vanilla.

Then you have marshmallow cream. It's delicious as a sandwich spread, especially with peanut butter.

finished marshmallow cream

Now to start the fudge. You take white sugar, light brown sugar, cream, and butter, and heat it. Notice the candy thermometer? Without one, it's almost impossible to get the right finished texture with fudge. Just ask me, I tried a batch without it.

fudge base beginnings

You have to stir right up to the point it starts boiling.

almost melted

Once the base starts to boil, it must be left unstirred till the temperature reaches the perfect temperature, so that it cools to the right consistency.

boiling fudge base

Once it's done boiling, you quickly stir in the marshmallow cream till it's melted and incorporated, then you have to let it cool to a precise temperature.

Perfect! Now you can add chocolate to this for chocolate fudge, or peanut butter for peanut butter fudge.

cooled fudge base

The fudge base added to chocolate chunks.

The fudge has to be shaped, so it's poured into pans, lined with saran-wrap for easy removal. Then it is allowed to cool gently in a cool room, not the fridge. No shocks.

cooled fudge

Inverted, and saran wrap removed. This is a single delivery! over a kilo of fudge!

finished peanut butter and chocolate fudge

Fudge is normally cut into small cubes. It is incredibly dense and rich, so most people enjoy only a cube or two, so I expect this delivery to last well into December.

cut into cubes