Fudge

Fudge, glorious fudge!  Fudge is just down right amazing.  But not just any fudge.  I don't give a hoot about that stuff where folks stir in marshmallow cream or marshmallows.  And even though I use Eagle Brand milk in many recipes, I don't want it in my fudge.  

When I eat fudge, I want fudge that tastes like the old days.  Old times.  When it had to be cooked and beaten just so.  When cooks worried it would sugar or not get hard.  When it turned out right, it was the most wonderful thing!  Hard enough to cut and slice and stack.  Just soft enough to melt in your mouth in a chocolate orgasm. 

I have a recipe for that kind.  But my thumb starts to cramp too bad before I can get it beat to perfection.  I can only make it if a back up beater is on hand.  

But my sister, Edna, has a great recipe that she has shared with me that doesn't take quite as much work.  But the end result still tastes very, very near that original fudge.  

You said what?  You want the recipe?  Okay, I'll share....but only if you promise to save me some.

Old Time Fudge

2 cups sugar          3/4 cup of milk

2 tablespoons cocoa          2 tablespoons Karo syrup

dash of salt          2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons of peanut butter     1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, combine dry ingredients.  Stir in milk and corn syrup.  Rub a dinner plate with the butter and then toss the rest in the pot.  Heat over medium until dissolved and starts to boil.  Cook to soft ball stage stirring as necessary. Remove from heat.  Add peanut butter and allow to cool without stirring.  Add vanilla.  Beat until fudge thickens and starts to lose it's gloss.  Spread quickly into the buttered plate.  Allow to harden.  Cut with buttered knife and enjoy.

(Soft ball stage is when you drop a spoonful of the mixture into a cup of ice cold water and you can just barely push it together with your fingers and pick it up.)

You can stir in 1/2 cup of nuts before you pour it up if you want.   For delicious peanut butter fudge, just leave the cocoa out of the mixture.

My sister also makes a sour cream fudge that will make you hurt yourself. 

Bubba learned to make fudge when he was still an adolescent.  I told him when he was older and married and his wife became hard to live with once a month, to just go to the kitchen and whip up a batch of fudge.  Serve it to her and everything would be alright.