Baking Traditions
It’s that time of year again…time to make Christmas sweets!
In between formatting Meadowcity for paperback, coordinating the cover design with the cover artist, and outlining my marketing plan, I managed to make two batches of fudge and one batch of caramels this weekend, all to great success. It mostly involved me standing in front of the stove all day, stirring!
The fudge recipe is no secret, so I’ll share it here. My mom has used this recipe since I can remember, and it always comes out perfect. I experimented with a different flavor for the season, and it turned out really well, if I do say so myself.
Fluff Never Fail Fudge
- 5 Cups Sugar
- 10 oz Evaporated Milk
- 1/4 lb (1 stick) Butter
- 1 jar of Fluff
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1.5 tsp Vanilla
- 24 oz Chocolate Chips
– Combine first five ingredients in a tall saucepan on low (I put it on “3” out of 11). Stir until blended.
– Once blended, increase heat to medium/low and slowly bring to a boil (I raise my burner up to between 4-5). Stir constantly!
– Once it has begun to boil, set a timer for 5 minutes.
– Use the “soft ball” test to determine if it is finished after your 5 minutes. Get a glass of cold cold water and drip some of the mixture in. If it forms a small ball by itself as it falls through the water, then it’s ready.
– Remove from heat, and add the chocolate and vanilla. {Adding the vanilla is my favorite part, because it gets all frothy for a second!}
– Stir like the wind, and pour into a buttered pan. Let it cool for a while, then cut.
This year I made traditional milk chocolate, but I wanted to experiment with the second batch. So I bought some white chocolate chips, and two boxes of candy canes to make White Chocolate Candy Cane Fudge!
First, I learned why crushed candy canes are $4 for a tiny container–while unwrapping 24 candy canes from their ridiculous cellophane wrappers of doom. It was a good thing the candy canes I bought were about to be crushed up, because ONE candy cane out of all that I opened was whole and complete. The rest were in three pieces at best.
I love my tiny food processor
And chopping things into small bits is always fun.
Right?
Anyway, instead of adding 1 cup of walnuts like the original recipe calls for, I added 1 cup of candy cane powder/bits. It did turn the fudge a little pink, but the taste is great! You can definitely taste both the white chocolate, and candy cane, and there are some small bits of candy cane that you can crunch on.
Overall, I think these will go quite nicely nestled between milk chocolate fudge and homemade caramels in my goodie boxes.