Mel's Famous Fudge!!

Now, I don't want to toot my own horn or anything... but if there is one thing I am known for making, it is FUDGE. I've been making it for years and have tweaked recipes until I came up with my own. I started making this in High School a whopping 10 YEARS ago. The last few years, I haven't made it as often, but it is still one of my favorite things to make while I'm visiting family. 

Ingredients

Now, my recipe makes like a lot of fudge (some thing like 4-5lbs or about 2 cake pans and some left over to eat out of the pot) and uses a LOT of sugar.  You can make a smaller batch by just halving everything. I always make a lot because I usually end up bringing some to my in-laws or to my old work. 

The first step is the easiest.  You melt the butter, add the evaporated milk and stir until combined. Then you add your sugar. And stir, stir, stir!

Mixing in the sugar

This next step is probably the hardest. Once the sugar is mixed, you bring the mixture to a rapid boil.  Now, at this point, most people will use a candy thermometer or a softball test, but I don't. I test for done-ness by checking the spoon to see if the sugar has dissolved.  It typically takes about 5 after the mixture starts boiling. If you boil to long, you will end up with fudge that is super hard (and gets hard once you add the chocolate). That sorta happened to me this time. It wasn't that bad, but I knew I had done it a bit too long. If you don't boil long enough, you can end up with gritty fudge. Confession time... When I first started making fudge, I didn't realize you had to boil until the sugar dissolved. I would bring it to a boil, then add the chocolate. So my fudge was SUPER gritty. And people still ate it and talked about how good it was!!!!

Boiling

Checking the spoon

Now, I'm sure taking pictures didn't exactly help my timing. So, once you have dissolved the sugar, turn your heat off and add in your chocolate chips stirring until the chocolate is melted. Then you immediately stir in the marshmallow fluff.  At this point I usually have someone help me stir because it gets really thick and can by hard to stir.

 My sister's boyfriend helping stir in the Fluff

As soon as the fluff has been mixed in, you pour the fudge into greased pans.  I used just a regular square cake pan and then tried using some heart mold pans.  The heart ones weren't as easy to fill as I thought. But they did pop out easy and were nice looking to gift to people.

PANS

My favorite part about making fudge is eating it out of the pot.  I always leave a bit extra in the pot and my mom, sisters and I will just grab some spoons and eat the super warm fudge. YUMMY.  

Recipe

1 Stick of Butter

10oz Evaporated Milk

5  Cups of Sugar

24oz of Chocolate Chips (2 standard 12oz bags)

3/4 Container of Marshmallow Fluff (15oz container)

Melt butter in large pot

Add evaporated milk and stir to combine

Add Sugar slowly, stirring constantly

Bring to boil of medium-high heat. STIR  CONSTANTLY (it will burn to bottom if you let sit)

Boil for 5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved

Add Chocolate chips and stir until melted

Add 3/4 container of Marshmallow Fluff and stir until combined. *Best guess of amount is fine. I'm sure I never get it exactly right*

Pour immediately into greased pans. 

Let cool.

 

Eat and enjoy!!!!