Best-of-Class Fair Fudge

Summer makes me think of days and weeks spent working on 4-H projects. I would spend all summer sewing, crafting, scrapbooking, and making several posters as the fair approached. 

I might practice my food projects throughout the summer but it wasn't really until the week of that I would start making most of my foods. I've spent countless hours standing at the stove making jams, butters, and candies. While these foods aren't hard to make, they sure are time consuming! 

Be ready to stand at the stove for a long time if you're planning on making candy!

This fudge is so easy! Smooth, creamy, and chocolatey! The classic fudge.

Don't get impatient while making this! Make sure you have plenty of time to stand and stir while you bring the mixture to a boil on a very low heat. It took me 20-30 minutes of constant stirring waiting for the mixture to boil.

Before starting to make your candy, it's always a good idea to make sure you have everything ready. I like to pre-measure my sugar and have my cans and jars open and ready to go. You especially want to have your pans lined and greased.

You want to use a heavy duty pan. I like to use this old pan when I make candy. It is my grandma's old pressure cooker pan. It's nice and heavy to help prevent burning and scorching.

When you add all of your ingredients stir constantly to melt all of the sugar to prevent sugar crystals in your fudge.

Here the mixture is boiling for 7 minutes. Because you don't have to stir constantly during the 7 minutes, keep a close watch as you can see the pan gets quite full! 

When 7 minutes is up, you remove your pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate. It doesn't hurt it to let the pan sit for a minute and let the chocolate melt. Stir until chocolate is completely blended in.

Pour into your prepared pans and let cool.

Once the fudge has set up you can score the top for cutting later. It's easiest to hold a ruler next to the pan and lightly press the fudge with a knife at one-inch increments. I mark two sides.

The foil is great because you can lift the fudge out after it has completely cooled in the fridge.
Follow your scored marks and you will have 64 pieces from each pan.

This recipe is from the old Illinois 4-H Cooking 101 book. They have changed the recipe since I was a 4-Her.

Fudge Recipe 

1 cup unsalted butter

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow cream

1 can evaporated milk

1 (11.5 oz) package semi-sweet choc. chips

1 (11.5 oz) package milk choc. chips

2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine butter, sugar, marshmallow cream, and evaporated milk in a 3 qt. heavy saucepan. Bring to boil over medium to low heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Boil steadily over low heat 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep mixture at a fairly low boil all the time.

Remove from heat, add chocolate chips and nuts, stir until chocolate is melted and blended into mixture. 

Pour at once into two lightly buttered or foil lined 8x8 square pans or one 10x15 jelly roll pan. While still warm, score candy in each pan into 64 pieces. Refrigerate. When cool and firm, cut. Makes about 5 1/2 pounds. Recipe will divide in half.

What's your favorite homemade candy to make?
Comment below!

Megan