The Fudge Experiment

Having never made fudge before I thought I would look through some recipes to look at the different types of fudge that can be made. Having looked through a number of recipes I decided it would be a good idea (not for my belly) to make 3 different types of fudge and then judge which I found to be the best.

These recipes are not my recipes and i have included links to the pages where I found them should anyone want to visit the originators.



The 3 types of fudge (i am sure there are 100's more however these are the ones I have gone for) would be

• A fudge made with evaporated milk
• A fudge made with clotted cream
• A fudge made with double cream

I made vanilla fudge for the taste test however as the first and third recipes produced a lot of fudge I did split the batch to make a pecan nut fudge with half of the evaporated milk fudge and a peanut butter fudge with half of the double cream vanilla fudge.
Ingredients used for the first fudge, the evaporated milk fudge

• 397g can Carnation Condensed Milk
• 150ml milk
• 450g demerara sugar
• 115g butter

The key to making fudge seems to be the temperature that your fudge needs to reach! That means you need a sugar thermometer.

To make this fudge simply throw all of the ingredients in a thick bottomed pan and gently heat to melt the sugar. Once the sugar has melted bring the mixture up to the boil and allow to simmer. Keep mixing to stop it sticking (mine did stick a bit) and check that temperature! Once the temperature reaches 116C remove from the heat and start mixing......Mix and mix and mix! Eventually the mixture will thicken as it cools, this took me a good 10 mins and 1 achy arm later job done! 

Pour the mixture into a tin covered with a sheet of baking paper and leave to cool. After 10 minutes run a knife over the fudge to create lines for cutting the fudge later. 

As I had a lot of fudge i split the batch at the end and threw a load of chopped pecans into the mixture gave it a quick stir and out into the tray for cooling. 

The fudge has a good texture and us very tasty it has a nice brown colour from the demerara sugar. It took a long time for the fudge to get up to 116C and took a good 10-15 minutes to mix until it was nice and thick.

The second recipe used clotted cream and caster sugar rather than demerara sugar, as such this turn out much paler than the first fudge. the ingredients for the clotted cream fudge are as follows. 

• 275g caster sugar
• 100g golden syrup
• 1 x 227g tub Rodda’s Cornish Clotted Cream
• ½ tsp vanilla essence

This fudge reached temperature quickly and didn't stick at all, The texture was really good however the taste is very sweet! Possibly too sweet!
As we can see the colour is very pale.

The final recipe used the double cream. This recipe as with the others just needed me to throw everything into a pan and bring to the boil before taking it up to 116C. 

The ingredients were.

• 100g butter
• 550g demerara sugar
• 200g golden syrup
• 350ml double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¼-½ tsp sea salt flakes

This recipe took an age to thicken, in fact I think i should have kept the mixture at 116C for a little while longer. However the fudge texture is good now cooled and I had half a batch spare so mixed it with peanut butter to make peanut butter fudge! Yummy! 

Having never made fudge before I was surprised how easy it was, it would be very easy to add lots of different flavours and generally have a lot of fun playing with the texture by cooking the fudge on for a few minutes perhaps! 

The next image shows the 3 side by side. 

For me, the clotted cream fudge is far too sweet, the other 2 look more like what I had expected with the double cream being my favourite! Having said that the extra fudge with the peanut butter is fantastic! 

Now it's time to get into the kitchen and make yourselves some fudge!

The links for the original recipes!

https://www.carnation.co.uk/Recipes/67/Ultimate-Fudge
https://www.roddas.co.uk/recipes/recipe/clotted-cream-fudge/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/11/how-to-make-the-perfect-fudge-felicity-cloake