White Chocolate Fudge
I was intrigued by the recipe, which I had cut out of a BBC Good Food magazine at some point, as it has liquid glucose in it, and I'd never made fudge with that in before. Not that I've made that much fudge before - just that when I have, it's been of the bog standard sugar, butter, cream or condensed milk variety.
This one worked well - the liquid glucose helps the texture, I think - keeping it soft but solid, and stopping it from being grainy.
I tasted a tiny bit, and like I said, it was super sweet. But that could also be that my taste for sweetness has been slightly altered by not eating dairy for the past year - no ice cream, only very dark chocolate and a limited cake/biscuit choice has definitely made my diet more of the fruity sweet rather than creamy sweet variety. Mr E certainly didn't seem quite as shocked as I did on tasting it - but then he likes eating condensed milk straight from the tin, so possibly not a great example!
I'll definitely use this fudge method again, but I think I might go with dark chocolate and see how that tastes - hopefully even better...
White Chocolate Fudge (Makes 1 tray approx 35x20cm - i.e. lots!)
- 500g golden caster sugar (I used 250g soft brown sugar and 250g granulated sugar instead of the golden caster sugar because I didn't have any)
- 500ml double cream
- 3 tbsp liquid glucose
- 140g white chocolate chopped coarsely (not too fine otherwise it will melt completely)
Firstly grease your tin and line the bottom with parchment.
Next put the sugar, cream and liquid glucose into a large heavy bottomed pan over a very low heat and melt together gradually, stirring regularly until the sugar melts and the mixture is no longer grainy. If you use granulated rather than caster sugar, this stage will take longer, and you'll have to keep the heat right down to stop the sugar mixture starting to boil before completely melted, otherwise the sugar in your finished fudge will crystallise a bit and make it grainy.
Once the sugar has completely dissolved, turn up the heat to medium and bring the mixture up to a vigorous boil. Don't put the temperature up too high, or it will catch and burn on the bottom of the pan, but by the same token, if you don't have it high enough, you wont reach the critical setting point.
The setting point for fudge is 118C, and while I do have a sugar thermometer, I still prefer to test by checking for the 'soft ball stage'. Drop a small amount of your boiling mixture carefully into a glass of cold water. If you can roll it into a soft ball under the water that holds it shape, but softens when taken out of the water, then the correct point has been reached. Maybe the next time I make fudge or tablet, I will manage to record the crucial moment with a photo! Generally I'm a bit distracted by the vat of boiling sugar in front of me to be taking photos though.
Take the mixture off the heat, put on a heatproof work top or chopping board, and stir for about 5 minutes, until the mixture starts to thicken, and leaves a trail on the surface that doesn't immediately disappear.
Add the white chocolate and give a very quick stir to distribute then quickly pour into the prepared tin - do this as fast as you can, as it will start to set rapidly.
Leave overnight to set fully and cool, then cut into squares.
The fudge will keep for up to 2 months in an airtight tin - but don't keep it in the fridge, otherwise it will go soft.
Hopefully it also travels well... as a big tub of it was entrusted to Royal Mail to be sent as a wedding present last week!
