Steve Wertz wrote:
> The fudge you buy at the specialty candy stores is always so much
> more sweet and rich than anything I've been able to duplicate at
> home. What's the secret(s)?
>
> I've tried heavy cream, light cream, evaporated milk, butter, etc,
> but have never been able to make a really good, commercial quality
> fudge. I just made some chocolate peanut butter fudge
> http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/reci..._18189,00.html
> using heavy cream instead of milk (was out of milk), and while
> it's fairly passable, it's not quite 100%.
>
> I should have used 1/4 brown sugar and 3/4 regular for this
> recipe, but that wasn't the whole problem, I'm sure. I'm not fond
> of brown sugar as I think it's kinda heavy tasting in most
> candy-making.
>

I have always used the dark chocolate fudge recipe from the Joy of
cooking with good results. It works like most "standard" fudge
recipes, so I will abreviate the directions:

Combine and bring to a boil:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/8 tsp salt.

Stir in until melted
6 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (use good chocolate
here...)

Cook until softball stage. Remove from heat, add:

2 TBS butter
1 tsp vanilla.

Cool, work until it loses it sheen. Stir in up to 1.5 cups chopped
walnuts, put in 8 inch by 8 inch foil lined pan.

I think a differnce between this recipe and others is the amount of
chocolate - this has a lot, and it ends up being very chocolatly, which
is good in my opinion. Don't skimp on the chocolate - use something
decent.

Later,
Mark Muller