I’ve tried just about every fudge recipe known to exist (love the stuff!), and this is the recipe I always return to when it has to be PERFECT.
It’s printed on the back of most of the 7 oz jars of Kraft Jet Puffed Marshmallow Creme. But in case you want to buy another brand or if the jars in your area feature another recipe, here it is below. Trust me, this one’s the best!
Fantasy Fudge
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine (or 1-1/2 sticks)
1 small can (5 oz) evaporated milk (2/3 cup)
1-1/2 pkg. (12 squares) BAKER’s semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped
1 jar(7 oz) JET PUFFED marshmallow creme
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla
Heat sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3 quart heavy saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil on medium heat until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir in chocolate and marshmallow creme until melted; stir in vanilla and walnuts.
Spread immediately in foil-lined 9 inch square pan. Cool at room temperature at least 4 hours; cut into 1 inch squares. Store in airtight container.
Makes 3 lbs. or 40 2 square servings
Be sure to make all chocohaulics stay away from the pan until at least 4 hours have passed. And don’t let any of them get cute by tossing it into the fridge to shorten the time! The candy is honestly best if allowed to sit and “set” at room temp. I’m one of those chocohaulics that tried the fridge thing one time….by getting a bit too anxious at the very end, it ruined all the effort and time I’d put into the fudge. I learned my lesson….now I have something else chocolatlicous to nibble on while waiting!
Joi
Related Articles:
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
This fudge recipe sounds excellent. Fantasies come true with this fudge recipe.
True, that! – Joi
Ok, so I used this recipe and was not at all impressed. My biggest complaint is it was grainy. I used a candy thermometer and slowly heated the mixture on medium to low heat. It sounds like an easy recipe and it took just a few minutes to make, but I feel like I’ve wasted $12 worth of groceries, bummer! I would highly suggest using a different recipe.
OMG! I am so sorry you didn’t have a good experience with this recipe. I absolutely swear by it. In fact, I just made a batch last Tuesday (snacks for “House”) and it was Heavenly as always.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, though. Others might want to approach with caution. Though having said that, I’ve made it without any graininess and/or complaints whatsoever, literally COUNTLESS times. In fact, I’ve never had a problem with a KRAFT recipe. They’re about as good as it gets.
Again, I’m really sorry you had a bad experience. I really feel bad. I know it’s maddening to feel like you’ve wasted money on ingredients – that stuff doesn’t grow on trees. $12 could have been a couple of Starbucks trips – that’s serious stuff, right there!
I am with you Joi! I swear by this recipe! I have been making it the last few years for the holidays and I have nothing but good responses! Everybody loves it! Its so simple but so tasty! I put my own twist on it and substitute it with milk chocolate! It makes it a little sweeter!
Wow – I’m going to try it with Milk Chocolate this weekend!
I’ve been trying to diagnose what could have made Nacole’s turn out grainy, and I’m honestly at a loss. It sounds like she did everything right! But that’s the thing with making candy, somethimes things go wrong and we never figure out where, when, or why.
I do hope she’ll try the recipe again, though. It makes absolutely perfect fudge.
Thanks for the tip about Milk Chocolate – can’t wait to try it!!! – Joi
i’ve made this numerous times,,, and had it come out grainy once…
and i BELIEVE (think!) that it is b/c the sugar didn’t come up to temperature w/ this.
a use of a candy thermometer is a MUST w/ this.
my question is…
though it isn’t grainy
i can’t get it to set “hard” (it is semi – hard)
and i am un-sure for that reason (i also omit the walnuts)
Hi, My name is Chelsy and this is also my favorite fudge recipe. I have been making it for years and it has turned out perfectly untill i made it last week. Mine turned out grainy last week and it was gross, but i know why! It turns out grainy if you mix all the ingredients at once. the key is to make sure that you follow the first step of Heating sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly and boiling for like 5 minutes. Then you MUST remove it from heat, and THEN put in chocolate, etc. It works great if you follow the directions, but last week i was making it in a hurry and stirred everything together and the sugar did not dissolve. Let me know if anyone else did this, I promice if you follow directions then it wont be grainy and will be DELICIOUS!!!:)
I just made this fudge today, it’s usually my favorite and comes out great. Not today though! Mine is a little grainy and the oil is separating from the rest of the mixture. I’ve got it in a pan and sopped up the oil, still tastes good but doesn’t look as pretty. I think it’s because I added the chocolate chips before I took the pan off the heat, they may have gotten too hot and caused my problem. I used a thermometer and it seems to take quite a bit more than 4 minutes to get to the 234 degrees.
Even the best cooks in the world have a few “OOPS” batches. I think you’re right about the chips, though. Better luck next time, eh?!
I hate it when a tried and true recipe will just refuse to show up for work. I had this happen with a favorite Pineapple Cake recipe a few months ago. I’d used the recipe, without incident, for YEARS. Then, as luck would have it, I was trying to make it for my oldest daughter’s birthday and FLOP. It made an utter fool out of itself. Fortunately, I always, always, always have the necessary ingredients to make a homemade chocolate on chocolate cake – so I went with that. (I use the recipe on the back of Hershey’s Cocoa – chocolate Heaven!).
Ok, I wanted to follow up with what happened to my fudge. I wrote my comment as it was sitting in the pan cooling. It was still a little grainy for my taste (especially on the edges of the pan? Can’t figure that one out). I tasted it after it had cooled the next morning and it was ok. So, I took it to my holiday party and they really liked it. I may be spoiled with the fudge I have had in the past. My dad is a culinary arts instructor and he tried to figure out what could’ve gone wrong and we were both at a loss for what might have happened. I do have two ideas- 1.) I am spoiled with super creamy melt in your mouth fudge, people here in Colorado seemed to really enjoy this fudge when served; 2.) I used an all clad pan, so it has several layers of metal to retain heat while you are cooking, I wonder if it just stayed to hot once I removed it from heat? That is the only thing I can think of…I wonder what kind of pot everyone else is using? Anyway, the fudge was fine for the people I Served it to, I just didn’t take the edge pieces. If I were to change anything it would just be to try a different pan. Otherwise my taste in fudge is probably just different due to where I grew up eating fudge. Thanks for the recipe and for allowing me to leave honest feedback.
Merry Christmas!
I’ve watched my mom make this recipie countless times at home for Xmas. Graniness is a common problem with this recipie if it is not done just right. Hers came out grainy once, and so did mine, but all other times the fudge was delicious. Mine was grainy when I made the mistake of not taking it off of the heat before I added the chocolate and marshmallow cream. Hers was grainy when someone called her on the phone in the middle of the boiling step and messed up the batch.
For those of you without candy thermometers, here is a neat trick, and just as accurate. Pour a tall glass of room temperature water, and while stirring the butter/milk/sugar mix, occasionally drop a small amount of the mixture into the water. It will initially form long blobs as it falls through the water. Once it begins to form round balls, the mixture is ready to be taken off the burner and choc/mallow cream added. Neither my mom nor I have ever used a candy thermometer, and as long as we have followed all the other directions, it has ALWAYS been perfection. Trust me, this stuff is better than real fudge!!
It’s so funny you mention the edge pieces, Nacole. I recently made some chocolate candy (sort of a cross between fudge and brownies, but closer to fudge) – in the middle it was sensational. I would have fought grizzly bears for a bite of it!
But around the edges, it tasted like shoe leather – or what I assume shoe leather tastes like. I had to saw the middle part away from the outter ring of concrete. Yet, if I had taken it out of the oven any sooner, the middle would have been waaaay too soft.
Candy can be so tempermental – sometimes it’s just as contrary as an overly pampered cat (as the mommy of 4, I know what that’s like).
I hope you had a wonderully delicious Christmas!
Has anyones fudge turned out gooey or carmely? My daughter just made some of this fudge and both of her batches turned out this way. What could she have done wrong?
Debra, I’ve been asking around – in addition to thinking about it myself, but I can’t figure out what point of the recipe would cause this to happen. Everyone seems to agree that sometimes candy is just like that. The very next time your daughter made it, it could turn out perfect.
The thing that had me puzzled was that she made two batches and they both turned out that way. I honestly just don’t know where the problem came up.
Having made litterally hundereds of batches of fudge with this recipe – suprisingly I recently made a mistake – and it turned out ever so much better. I was making a double batch, and for some reason I put in the marshmallow cream before the chocolate … which cooled the mixture down enough that it took forever for the chocolate to melt, and the fudge to set up. But once it did, it was the creamiest fudge ever. So if you have extra time, and don’t mind stirring forever, change the order up a little.
And as I was stirring and stirring, convinced that I had totally messed up and that it would never set, I kept thinking, what great ice cream topping this would make. So you could even stop a little early … for topping.
As for grainy fudge – it’s caused by not heating it to the correct tempature. If your thermometer said you reached soft ball … I’d say you had a defective thermometer.
I’m sure this is posted somewhere, but I just wanted to share in case it isn’t. My grandma has used this recipe for YEARS for our family Christmas, and instead of chocolate she uses a jar of peanut butter. Absolutely amazing!
Problem of graininess… here are other Secrets that I read about:
-Fudge is one of the rare exceptions to the rule that sugar crystals are not desirable in candy. Tiny microcrystals in fudge are what give it its firm texture. The crystals are small enough, however, that they don’t feel grainy on your tongue, but smooth. While you ultimately want crystals to form, it’s important that they don’t form too early. The key to successful, nongrainy fudge is in the COOLING, not the cooking.
So heating the ingredients to the soft-ball stage, or 234° F, then allowing it to cool undisturbed to approximately 110° F. If you stir during this cooling phase, you increase the likelihood that seed crystals will form too soon. ONCE the fudge has cooled to about 110° F, you want to start the crystallization process. You start to stir, stir, stir and keep stirring, until the candy becomes thick. The more you stir, the more crystal seeds you get. But instead of getting a few huge crystals (and grainy candy), you get lots and lots of tiny crystals, which make for thick, smooth candy.
-Don’t attempt to achieve smooth fudge with vigorous stirring AFTER it’s reached the soft-ball stage: stirring at the wrong time can actually promote crystallization of sugar into large grains. Small sugar crystals equal smooth fudge that melts on the tongue. (so no electric beater)
-Once fudge is in pan leave it alone to cool ,undisturbed, Fudge produces a supersaturated solution—this means that the solution contains more sugar molecules than would normally be possible at room temperature. A supersaturated solution is highly unstable, and any agitation will cause crystallization to occur throughout the solution. If fudge is stirred while it’s still hot, fewer crystals form, and they grow larger as the syrup cools, resulting in a coarse, grainy candy.
- Also.. Do a test to be sure your thermometer is accurate. Let it stand in boiling water for 10 minutes. If the thermometer doesn’t read 212 degrees F, you need to figure the difference and add or subtract to make the temperature measurements correct for your candy.
- FAQ… There are two other candies that deliberately employ sugar crystals. One is fondant, a wetter version of fudge that you find inside soft-center chocolates. The other is rock candy, for which a sugar solution is left for days to form enormous crystals.
sources: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/fudge-story.html
http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Perfect-Fudge/Detail.aspx
You only get the grainy thing if you do NOT have a rolling boil! i have made this for years and messed it up a few years ago ’cause i did not have a full rolling boil!!
Hi. I was just wondering if anyone knows what the amount is if you are using milk chocolate chips instead of the bars of Baker’s chocolate? My mom always made her fudge with chips instead of chopped bars, but she passed away in 2004. She was still young, 48, so I never asked her to write down her modified recipe nor did I pay much attention when we made it together. I will say this: This is the ONLY fudge recipe my Momma used and it was always AWESOME!!! Thanks!
I’ve made two batches as well and they’ve come out soft. and tonights batch cooled for some 8 hours and it’s still soft.
I have been making this fudge for years. Its easy but there are several things to watch out for.
1. dont burn your chocolate! if your too hot when you put in your chocolate chips (i use 1 bag 12 oz per batch) your chocolate will burn and get grainy. (no saving it at this point)
2. fresh marshmallow puff. Usually by this time of year it shouldnt be a problem. but if you have had the jar around for a year…. better get some fresh.
3. fresh butter not margrine. margrine contains water and it just makes all kinds of mess of fudge.
1 teaspoon of karro light corn syrup may help with the crystallization problem. ( i tried it once and it worked)
watch your heat at all times…. if you start to burn your sugar/marshmallow slurry move your pan off to the side of your hear source till your temp stabilizes.
Peanutbutter chips & Andies mint chips/pieces also make wonderful fudge.
Good luck and I hope i have helped some of you
I don’t get it…I have made this fudge in the past and it was soo good…Now, I’ve tried it 3 times the past few days and it’s grainy and and the oil separates from it every time. I’ve read through here and done the suggestions and it’s still grainy. I don’t get it and I’m so upset about it because this fudge it really good if it’s cooked right and now I can’t seem to get it right and am giving up cause I can’t afford to keep wasting the ingredients.
I know this might sound silly, but my grandmother once told me that some candies, like divinity, won’t come out right if there is too much humidity in the air. I wonder if fudge might be affected by humidity, also.
Lexi, not silly at all! Pretty much all candy can be affected by the weather – and humidity wreaks havoc with just about all of them. Great point!