how to make the delicious fudge, in any flavor you want

Fudge can be a tricky dessert to make, too many first time candy makers have created a grainy soupy mess that vaguely resembles fudge. Fudge should be silky smooth in texture, sinfully rich in taste, and above all delicious. Good fudge is a lot easier to make then you realize. I’m not going to give you any one specific recipe here, instead I am going to show you a couple tricks for making a simple fudge base and some ideas for how to change up the flavors in them. This way you can learn to make dozens of different flavors and discover both your all-time favorites as well as some new ones.

Let’s start with how to make basic fudge. I cheat at this, I am going to show you the easiest most fool proof way you have ever seen to make fudge. You will need the following.

1) (2) 12 oz bags of chocolate chips (or white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, etc.)

2) 1 can sweetened condensed milk (plus one in reserve, more on why later)

Directions:

Combine both the chips and the sweetened condensed milk in a heavy pot on medium low (nonstick preferred here). Let this melt and combine together until smooth. At this point you have basic fudge, you can pour this in a baking pan sprayed with no stick spray and refrigerate and you are done with a basic, simple fudge. I’ve never been a fan of basic…

Making it fun:

Ok let’s go through some ways to spice things up a bit in the kitchen and some rules for making sure the results come out the way you want them to. First let’s go through some ways to add in some flavor to your fudge.

1) Extracts: flavor extracts can add a ton of flavor to fudge just like they can with anything else. I usually like to use white chocolate chips for this as they tend to play well with other flavors better than some of the other options. Try 1 tablespoon of flavor extract per batch. For example mix up a batch of white chocolate fudge with some green food coloring and a tablespoon of mint extract or mint leaves pureed with some vodka to create your own extract. Layer this between two layers of dark chocolate fudge for a mint chocolate chip fudge. To give the fudge some crunch you can mix in some cookies (Oreo’s for example without the cream filling)

2) Mix-ins: Ok this can be anything from crushed up nuts (butterscotch chips combined with pecans are always a big hit), candies, marshmallows to even fruit. For the fruit idea I have had a lot of success with combining white chocolate fudge with fruit pie filling (cherry for example). The only catch with this is that you will want to reduce the amount of sweetened condensed milk to compensate for the extra moisture in the pie filling.

3) Blending chips. Here’s a really simple way to combine a couple flavors one of my favorite is to take one bag dark chocolate (semi or bitter sweet) with one bag peanut butter chips. Melt the chocolate chips first then add the peanut butter you want to stir just enough to combine. You want brown and black ribbons in it. Then add to the pan and refrigerate. Chocolate peanut butter cup fudge, one of my favorites.

Finally a couple of tips to keep you on track:

Watch your moisture level. Fudge when heated should have the consistency of thick honey. Not clay and not water. Cut back or increase the amount of sweetened condensed milk based on what you put in it. (that’s why you always have an extra can in reserve)

Have fun with it, keep playing with different ingredients and flavor combinations. Find something you really enjoy.

Just follow my advice and you will be making fudge that is better then anything you have bought in no time.