This is not how fudge is supposed to look. You know, just in case you were wondering. The ingredients were right. The process was right. Just that little bit right at the end, the part where you stop cooking it when it’s done … that’s kind of important.
Ingredients
3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch cream of tartar
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter (plus more for the dish)
Directions
Combine all the dry ingredients: sugar, cocoa, salt, cream of tartar.
Stir the dry ingredients to combine, then stir in the milk and add the butter. Don’t melt the butter first, it will melt as you heat everything together.
Before turning on the heat under the mixture, butter the dish you’re going to cool the fudge. You need to have this done before you start cooking.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
Optional: Look over at the cat drinking from the dog’s bowl, and notice that he looks like he’s hugging the toilet after a rough night.
Keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken. This can take 20 minutes, so plan plenty of time for standing over the stove.
The consistency will change all of a sudden, going from very thin to very thick in the space of about 30 seconds.
IMMEDIATELY remove it from heat, stir in the vanilla, and pour the mixture out into your buttered dish. If you don’t, about eight-and-a-half seconds after getting thick it goes straight to this:
FAIL!
Well, it’s still sugar and chocolate, can’t be all bad. I added a couple of tablespoons of milk and stirred again, then scraped what I could into two cups. Topped with walnuts and ate it like that.
About half of it stayed stuck in the pan.
Anyone out there who’s made fudge, please leave a comment telling me what I did wrong. I know I should have pulled it off the heat sooner than I did, but is it really supposed to go from thick to crumbly that fast?
I want to try this again this weekend. I’d really like to know if there’s anything else I need to change.
