Fudge Fail

 

   C had a surprise for me. He was talking to his sister Elizabeth about the fudge that she and their other sister Mertis used to make. She said it was pretty simple and gave him the recipe. He was excited. This is the same recipe his mother also used to make fudge. He gave it to me.

  I thought that this time of year would be a good time to try out the recipe. I had wanted to shake up my holiday treat making routine. I was getting bored with making the same cookies all the time. When I was younger and used to do the holiday baking for the family, I used to make fudge. It would be good to try making it again.

   The recipe seemed a bit too good to be true. There were only a few ingredients, cocoa powder, sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla, butter and a pinch of salt. I thought that fudge making required more ingredients. The fudge I used to make required marshmallow cream and a few other things. I was told that there were two things that I needed to make sure the fudge turned out. The first was to make sure that all the sugar had melted so the texture wasn't grainy. The other was not to stir it too much.

  Last week C and I decided to make it. I got out a saucepan and assembled the ingredients. I mixed the sugar and cocoa powder together then added the evaporated milk. Then I turned on the burner. The ingredients started to meld together into a smooth thick sauce. It looked very promising. C added the butter and I added a little vanilla. I kept stirring carefully. After awhile it started to thicken. I took some of the mixture and dropped it into a small glass of cold water. It formed into a ball. I tried to pick the ball up out of the water but it fell apart. We continued to cook it, watching it slowly thicken. Eventually we agreed it was done and poured it into a small pan that I had buttered. 

  I sampled some off the spoon. It was pretty good. The flavour was very intense. If I made it again, I would probably use a little less cocoa. Maybe I could add something to it like little bit of chili powder to give it a kick. I put it out on the cold porch to cool.

  The next day C and I were both excited. After supper we took the fudge out. I cut a row and then cut a couple pieces. it felt pretty soft. I tried to take a piece out of the pan. I had to scoop it out. The fudge was way too soft. I sampled a piece. The taste was good and the texture was not grainy. However it was  too soft to put on the cookie plates we were making for people.  

  I'm guessing that we didn't cook it long enough. We should have cooked it until the fudge made a soft ball that I could pick up when dropped  into cold water. I'm not sure if I will make it again. Perhaps I'll find the recipe I had when I was a kid,,,,,