Fudge Recipes

1. In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chips,milk and salt.
2. Stir occasionally till smooth.
3. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Spread evenly into wax paper lined 8″ pan.
5. Add the peanut butter cups. Push into the fudge.
6. Chill pan 2 hours or until firm.
7. Remove wax paper and cut into squares.
8. Store loosely covered at room temperature.
9. Makes about 3LB.

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup milk (whole)
1/2 stick (1/4 c) butter or margarine (not spread)
1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (vanilla chips)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted
1/2 cup dried cherries or cranberries
Line a 8″ square pan with foil; grease foil.
Mix sugar and milk in a heavy 3 quart saucepan. Add butter and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Without stirring, boil vigorously 5 min. Remove from heat. Add chips and vanilla. Stir, then whisk until chips melt and mixture is smooth. Stir in almonds and cherries; spread in prepared pan. Refrigerate 6 hours until firm. Invert pan, peel off foil, invert fudge and cut in 1″ squares.

Ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup half and half or light cream
2 tablespoons espresso powder
OR
3 tablespoons instant coffee crystals
3 tablespoons light-colored corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts
2 ounces semisweet chocolate — melted (optional)
coffee beans — optional

Directions:

Line an 8×8x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Butter the foil, set pan aside.

Butter sides of a heavy 3-quart saucepan. In the saucepan, combine sugar half and half or light cream, espresso powder or instant coffee crystals, corn syrup, and cinnamon. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until mixture boils.

Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan. Reduce heat to medium-low; continue to boil at a moderate, steady rate, stirring occasionally, until thermometer registers 234F, soft ball stage. (25 to 35 minutes). Adjust heat as necessary to maintain a steady boil.

Remove pan from heat. Add the 2 tablespoons butter and vanilla, but do not stir. Cool without stirring, to 110F (55 to 60 minutes).

Remove thermometer from pan. Beat mixture vigorously with a clean wooden spoon until fudge just begins to thicken; stir in nuts. Continue beating until fudge just starts to lose its gloss (about 10 minutes).

Immediately spread fudge evenly in prepared pan. Score into 1 1/2 inch squares while warm. When fudge is firm, use foil to lift it our of pan. Cut fudge into squares.

If desired, drizzle pieces with melted chocolate and top with coffee beans.

MISSISSIPPI MUD PIE
16 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
1/4 C. melted butter
1 1/2 pints softened coffee flavored ice cream
1/4 C. chocolate fudge sauce
Mix cookie crumbs and melted butter. Line bottom of pie plate and put in freezer for 20 minutes. Spoon ice cream into pie shell. Cover with fudge sauce. Return to freezer until sauce hardens.
A deluxe company pie.

2 sticks oleo
3 1/2 tablespoon cocoa
(Col. 2—ed.)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup coconut
1 1/2 cup nuts
1 jar marshmellow cream
Melt 2 sticks oleo. Add cocoa and granulated sugar. Add eggs, flour, vanilla. Mix well and add coconut and nuts. Pour into 9×13 pan and bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and spread with marshmellow cream. Cool.

Icing
1 stick oleo
3 1/2 tablespoon cocoa
1-3 cup milk
1 package confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Prepare icing by melting remaining stick of oleo. Add remaining cocoa and milk. Boil one minute. Add confectioners sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

Beat together until thick:
(Col. 5—ed.)
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 pound melted butter
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cocoanut
1 cup pecans
Bake in greased and floured oblong pan at 250 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.
Cover with marshmallow cream as soon as you remove from oven.

FROSTING
1/4 pound melted margarine
6 tablespoons milk
1-2 cup cocoa
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pecans
Mix above ingredients together, with exception of nuts, when well mixed it reaches consistency of icing add nuts and ice cooled cake.

Mix:
One-third cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
Pinch of salt
Add:
2 sticks margarine, melted
4 eggs beaten
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

Pour into greased (3×7 1/2-inch) pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Pull from oven and put a layer of miniature marshmallows over top. Put back in oven until marshmallows toast. Take out cake and cool.

Icing
Mix:
1 box confectioners sugar
One third cup cocoa
1 stick margarine, melted
One-third cup milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Mix icing well and spread over cool cake.

Ingredients

• For the cake layers
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (clear keeps the cake very white)
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (clear keeps the cake very white)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup full-fat milk
• 7 large egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Filling and Frosting
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 8 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons clear vanilla
• 1/2 cup finely chopped dried figs (plus 3 whole dried figs for garnish)
• 1 cup pecans, toasted lightly and chopped fine
• 1/2 cup raisins, chopped
• 1/2 cup dried or candied cherries

Directions

1. Grease and flour 3 or 4 9-inch round cake pans.
2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and the almond extract.
3. In a different bowl, stir together the flour, the baking powder, and the salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in batches alternately with the milk, until well combined.
4. In another large bowl beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until they just hold stiff peaks, stir one third of them into the batter, and fold in the remaining whites gently but thoroughly.
5. Divide the batter among the prepared pans, smoothing the tops, and bake the cake layers, in batches if necessary, in the middle of a preheated 325°F. oven for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
6. Let the cake layers cool in the pans on racks for 5 minutes, turn them out onto the racks, and let them cool completely. The cake layers may be made 1 week in advance and kept wrapped well in plastic wrap and frozen. Let the layers thaw before proceeding with the recipe.
7. Frosting:
8. In a small saucepan combine the sugar and the water, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, and boil the syrup until it registers 248°F. on a candy thermometer. Pour sugar mixture into a tempered glass measuring cup. (I suggest this because the pot is very, very hot and heavy!. Transfering the sugar to a glass mesauring cups is lighter, cooler, and easier to pour from.)
9. While the syrup is boiling, in a large bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they hold soft peaks and with the mixer running add the hot syrup in a stream. (DO NOT DUMP THE HOT SUGAR MIXURE DIRECTLY INTO YOUR EGG WHITES! This will cause your egg whites to deflate. However, if this happens all is not lost! Keep mixing the egg whites and they will come back eventually.)
10. Beat in the vanilla and beat the icing until it is cool - about 10-15 minutes. Transfer 2-3 cups of the icing to a bowl, reserving the remaining icing, and fold in the figs, pecans, cherries, and raisins.
11. Arrange 1 of the cake layers, flat side up, on a serving plate, spread it with half the dried-fruit icing, and top the filling with another cake layer, flat side down. Spread the top layer with the remaining dried-fruit icing and top the filling with the remaining cake layer. Spread the top and side of the cake with the reserved plain icing .To garnish, either leave the top of the cake plain, sprinkle with pecans, or to do what I did, take a dried fig and flatten it. Using a very sharp paring knife, cut a “W” out of the top. This will become your tulip! Use log pieces of pecans for the stems. For the ribbon I used big dried cherries that I cut into a strip, and two that I flattened and cut a “V” out of.
12. Refrigerate the cake until you’re ready to eat it. The frosting is very light and sticky at room temperature. When it’s refrigerated it gets firm and sets a bit better.

1888, 1891, 1893 — Recipes for soft candies had existed for centuries. They became suddenly popular in the United States in the 1890s at women’s colleges, because these candies could be made in the dormitories with chafing dishes or chem lab equipment. So the real issue here is the names of these dishes, and American recipes. Lee Edwards Bening, in her book Oh Fudge! published a letter from the archives of Vassar stating that chocolate fudge was invented in 1888, using a recipe from a Baltimore candy store. Janet Theophano, in her book Eat My Words, published an 1892 recipe for “penucio” from a letter between two suffragists. (The earliest-known published reference to “panocha” is in an 1870 government report.) The American History Cookbook uses a published recipe from the 1893 Home Queen World’s Fair Souvenir Cook Book. You have a very good chance to find earlier recipes from panocha/penuci etc. in old cookbooks with contributors from the southwest, since this kind of brown-sugar fudge with walnuts probably goes back centuries in that area, and influenced New Orleans pralines. You have a very good chance of finding earlier published recipes for fudge (or “fudges”) in books from the late 1880s and early 1890s, if only because there were a lot of such books published, and no one has read through all of them looking for early fudge recipes. You might even find the Baltimore recipe for chocolate soft candy, perhaps not yet called “fudge,” in a technical manual for candy-makers! Assuming that “fudge” was named in 1888, there is an excellent chance someone will find a recipe in a manuscript or letter with a date before 1890, since this was a fad among college girls, who would have mailed around the recipe with the daring new name. Much the same should work for panocha/penuci, etc.

This delicious recipe makes 5 pounds of chocolate fudge, unless you make it without nuts, then it’s 4 pounds.

Ingredients You Will Need:

• 20 oz. Hershey’s milk chocolate bars - I buy the big ones that are always on sale at Christmas time, but any size will do, just make sure it adds up to 20 oz. If you like darker fudge, substitute some or all of the 20 oz. with the semi-sweet chocolate bars.
• 1 cup butter (not margarine!), softened to room temperature. Also, a little extra butter for your pans.
• 1-12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Use a good brand, as in Nestle’s, Hershey’s, or Ghiradelli. If you prefer lighter fudge, use milk chocolate chips.
• 4 cups granulated (white) sugar
• 1 and 2/3 cups evaporated milk
• 2 and 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
• 2 teaspoons vanilla, use the real stuff
• 1 pound of nuts, chopped

In your large stainless steel bowl, break up the milk chocolate candy bars and the butter into small pieces. Pour in chocolate chips and set aside.

Grease your pans with butter. You’ll need two 9×13 inch flat cake pans, but you can use smaller or larger pans depending on what you have available, and how thick you want your fudge to be. It’s best to have a couple of extra smaller pans ready just in case.

In a large saucepan or pot, combine sugar, evaporated milk and mini marshmallows. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Tip: Don’t scrape the sides of the pot when you are stirring, it tends to make candy taste grainy.

Cook and stir at a light but steady boil for 7 minutes. You might see some brownish bits floating around as its cooking. This is normal. Remove from heat, pour over butter and chocolate in your bowl.

With a wooden spoon, stir until melted and well blended. Continue to stir until candy loses some of it’s shine. (The shine should go from a shiny, high gloss to a matte gloss). Stir in vanilla and nuts, if desired.* Pour into buttered pans. Cool completely before cutting into pieces. Use a knife dipped in hot water for cutting.

*If you don’t want nuts in your fudge, this is where you leave them out. If you want to make a pan of fudge without nuts, then first stir in the vanilla, then pour how much you want without nuts into a pan, and then add nuts to the remaining fudge. You’ll need to adjust the amount of nuts then. For example, if you’re making half of your fudge without nuts and half with, then only use 8 oz. of nuts.