Old-Fashioned Fudge

There are some issues with this recipe – most notably that the volume is not enough to fill out an 8×8 pan and the ingredient proportions seem a bit off. Also, similar recipes add the butter after the pan is off the heat, and wait to beat the mixture until it has cooled to 110-115F. I think the results for this recipe suffer, particularly when it comes to a creamy texture, it’s definitely lacking.

Made it love it no changes

Very close to our old family recipe! The changes I made: buttered the pan well, replaced ordinarily cocoa with Callebaute extra brute, used evaporated milk instead of milk, included half the butter before boiling and mixed everything together in a separate bowl before adding to pan. Tios: Do not stir once it begins to boil, turn down to low until 237f. Remove from heat, add remainder of butter and vanilla. Stir once mixture reaches 110f, pour into buttered and parchment lined 6×6 square pan once it begins to lose it’s gloss. Enjoy!

I tried for years to make my mothers old fashioned fudge only to come up repeatedly with thick goo that never set. This recipe not only worked, but tastes exactly like my mothers. The key, and I can not stress this enough, is to let the temperature go up two to three extra degrees on your candy thermometer. No more goo ever! And now my grandchildren are in love with this old fashioned fudge too!

I didn’t care too much for this recipe. It is in my experience that there are other recipes that are closer to OLD Fashioned than this one. I can not say a negative about the recipe only that I did not care for it. It is a recipe to try though. It is easy to make and the over all flavor is good. This is a good starting point for those who have never made fudge before.

I tried my hand at this fudge. I only changed the recipe by adding 1/8 tsp of salt and walnuts in the end. I cooked it to a boil and let it cook by itself without stirring until it reached the soft ball mark on my candy thermometer and I also tested it in the glass of water. I let the pan sit off the heat for awhile and then put it in a pan of cold water to bring the temp down. At 110-115, I began stirring. Physically I was only able to stir for 10 min. (I didn’t have anyone home to help). I didn’t notice any change to the color only that it thickened. I poured it into a buttered dish and put in the fridge overnight. This a.m. I cut the candy. I was barely able to keep it in squares because it was soft. I didn’t mind it being soft but I wasn’t 100% pleased with the taste. It’s kind of a sickening sweet. I honestly don’t know if it will even be eaten and I eat chocolate every day. I probably needed to let it boil for another 2 minutes to get the consistency right and next time I will let my kitchenaid do the stirring. I also may research more takes on the Hershey fudge recipes and reviews to address the taste. Thanks for posting this recipe as it has pushed me into trying to make homemade fudge.

This recipe throws you off, so I will give you some tips. It says to beat the mixture with a wooden spoon until the mixture loses it’s sheen and THEN pour it into the bowl. What you do once the fudge reaches the right temperature is take it off heat for 2 minutes. Then beat it with a wood spoon. After you have done that, mix in the vanilla and quickly pour the mixture into the pan. I followed the directions but once it got thick, it was un-pourable and already turning/ed into fudge. Bottom Line: You need to pour the fudge into the pan when it is still glossy and liquid-y and pourable. Follow this and you will turn out with amazing fudge.

Mine is soupy, but tastes good. I think I was impatient and didn’t let it cook long enough. 🙁

This is a good recipe that I’ve used for years, the only thing that should be done differently is, once the ingredients reach a boiling point reduce the heat to a slow low boil and DO NOT STIR . Stirring causes crystals to form on the pan and can deter the consistency. I add black walnuts and walnut flavoring instead of vanilla after it is removed from heat and beat by hand until gloss is gone then pour quickly into buttered pan as it sets up rapidly.

I was looking for a yummy fudge recipe that I had ingredients for. Some of the reviews made me nervous, but I succeeded and I am not a master chef and had two little ones “helping.” Read through the other reviews so you know what to expect. Also I appreciated the suggestion on using a kitchen-aid to do the stirring (it took forever to lose the gloss, I couldn’t imagine stirring by hand.) My kids loved it. Should have doubled the recipe.

I love this kind of fudge. In my opinion, the other stuff with marshmellow creme isn’t really fudge. The problem I’ve had with this is beating it after it’s reached the softball stage and cooled. It takes some major arm strengh and endurance! Some hints in working with this kind of fudge: Sift the sugar and cocoa together before mixing it with the other ingredients, it’ll blend better with no cocoa lumps; butter the sides of the pan, use a heavy-guage sauce pan. Do not disturb the fudge once it starts to “roll” boil. Using corn syrup AND sugar helps to keep the sugar from crystallizing and ruining the entire batch. If the fudge is grainy after it’s cooled-crystalization of the sugar is the culprit. Don’t scrape the sides of the pan as the fudge cooks, that can also be dangerous-if you have one sugar crystal on the side and it gets into the fudge it will ruin it. Once the fudge starts to thicken (as you’re beating it) and loses it high gloss, THAT is the time to get it into a buttered pan. ALSO, do NOT use one of those spray products to grease the sides of your cooking pot, there is something in the product that will keep your fudge from thickening. I’ve learned all these hints from mistakes I’ve made. Good luck. This is definitely worth the effort!

This is an awesome recipe. I used Alton Brown’s directions with this recipe and it turned out perfect not grainy . Use half the butter when cooking and the other half when it is cooling. Once it hits 234 degrees or the soft ball stage which ever comes first turn the heat off add the rest of the butter and let it cool without stiring for 10 min and with a wooden spoon beat the heck out of it for 20 min more or less until it losses it glossyness it hurts your arm after a while but its worth it.

This was dry and crumbly, but I will give it four stars because I most likely did something wrong! It was my first time making fudge.

Definitely prefer with peppermint extract. Skim milk works fine. Also have used stand mixer twice with excellent results- after removing mixture from heat, pour directly into mixer bowl. Top with margarine (I use 1 tbsp.) and extract. Let cool a bit, protected from disturbance and particles (30 min. seems to work fine), and then mix with dough hook on low/med setting until mixture is noticeably thicker and loses glossiness-meaning the part the spoon or hook has just touched is lighter and less glossy then the rest (usually takes 10-15 min.). Easy! Be sure to have buttered pan (a loaf pan is perfect for this amount) and spatula ready, as soon as you stop the mixer the candy will harden very quickly! Also, when I was measuring the temp., 225 was about right, but you’ll be able to judge whether it’s cooked long enough just by its appearance after you’ve made this a few times- for me this cooks for about 10-15 min. just below the medium setting on my stove, with just a few stirs with a whisk to keep it from burning on the bottom. As long as you follow a few basic rules, this takes very little effort. The waiting is the hard part! Thank you for this recipe!

Definitely prefer with peppermint extract. Skim milk works fine. Also have used stand mixer twice with excellent results- after removing mixture from heat, pour directly into mixer bowl. Top with margarine (I use 1 tbsp.) and extract. Let cool a bit, protected from disturbance and particles (30 min. seems to work fine), and then mix with dough hook on low/med setting until mixture is noticeably thicker and loses glossiness-meaning the part the spoon or hook has just touched is lighter and less glossy then the rest (usually takes 10-15 min.). Easy! Be sure to have buttered pan (a loaf pan is perfect for this amount) and spatula ready, as soon as you stop the mixer the candy will harden very quickly! Also, when I was measuring the temp., 225 was about right, but you’ll be able to judge whether it’s cooked long enough just by its appearance after you’ve made this a few times- for me this cooks for about 10-15 min. just below the medium setting on my stove, with just a few stirs with a whisk to keep it from burning on the bottom. As long as you follow a few basic rules, this takes very little effort. The waiting is the hard part! Thank you for this recipe!

Pretty good fudge. The taste was great, but it came out a bit hard and grainy, I think because I let it cool a bit too much before pouring it into the 9×9 pan as it got really hard on me before I had it totally poured. So, I ended up scraping huge lumps of fudge off of the spoon into the pan, and then pressing it down with my hand… not very classy but it worked. Anyway, I’ll be keeping this recipe and trying it again, next time not letting it cool quite so much before getting it into the pan. Thanks for sharing!

Made this and a marshmallow version to compare. This one has a better flavor and texture. I used evaporated milk and doubled the amounts of the ingredients – otherwise the pieces will be very thin. Here’s why I couldn’t give it 5 stars: as directed I stirred until it lost the gloss and it VERY quickly solidified in the saucepan. To salvage, I chipped it out of there and put it in a double boiler, adding a little more evaporated milk and stirring until it was able to be poured into the baking dish. That worked, but next time I’ll pour as soon as it starts to lose the gloss. Requires a lot of hard stirring, so be ready for an arm workout. Have an extra spoon on hand in case it breaks. Worth it? YES!

This was fabulous and not as hard as I expected it to be. Read the helpful hints of other reviewers and followed the directions to a T.

This is the same as my mothers except my mom uses evaporated milk. The trick is to stir, stir, stir, until glossy and almost unstirable. Don’t over cook. As soon as you take it off the stove put it in the sink with about 2-3 inches of water. You will need a heavy duty pan and spoon, I have brok many. Also, don’t let even 1 drop of water go into the fudge or it will ruin it. I only eat this type of fudge it has been passed down many years through our family. Marshmallow fudge is not fudge! This recipe may take many times of making before you perfect it!

This recipe is a definite winner. I’m surprised at the past bad reviews. I followed the recipe exactly (except that I added 1/2 cup of broken walnuts with the vanilla), and it came out great. I think this fudge recipe is much better than the ones that call for marshmallows. I couldn’t find my old recipe for fudge, so I tried this one since it’s very similar, and I think this recipe is even better than mine. I like the addition of corn syrup. I think it gives the fudge a smoother texture. My family LOVED it.

i didn’t have milk so i used water, but it still came out well. I love the grainy feel of old fashioned fudge, the microwaved, and powdered sugar versions just aren’t the same…..