Oh Fuuuudge!

Oh Fuuuuuuudge, a post about how to make old fashioned home made fudge? Yes, it's true. I am about to divulge essential secrets that have been passed down for generations and generations, and---( well I may be exaggerating just a little bit). Regardless! Here are a few reasons why this should make you excited:

1. You will not have to turn on your oven

2. You do not need a candy thermometer

3. Do you know how long cooked sugar keeps? Stored properly, this fudge will last through January. (Of course, if you have made it correctly you will be lucky if it lasts the evening!)

4. In a pretty tin with some printed parchment paper, this fudge makes a lovely gift.

5. I have a recipe for chocolate AND for peanut butter.

6. PEANUT BUTTER, did you hear me?

Let's get to it, for the peanut butter fudge you will need:

1 jar peanut butter (creamy)

1 jar marshmallow fluff

4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk

2 tsp vanilla

Step 1: Pour the sugar and milk into a large pot and bring to a boil. While stirring every once in a while, let the mixture boil*around 5 minutes. At this point, grab a small cup of very cold water. You are going to start testing your mixture to see if it has reached the soft boil point. Take a tiny bit of mixture from your pan and drop it in the cold water--- if it balls up, or stays solid and DOES NOT DISSOLVE in the water, then you are ready! *you will want a pretty deep pan, because the milk and sugar boil up pretty high. See the below picture of my lovely grandma stirring our boiling mixture up...

Once you have decided the mixture is at the ready by doing the water test, you can mix in all your other ingredients. Mix in peanut butter, vanilla and marshmallow fluff. Here is the second important part of this process: you have to start stirring. This is not a job for the kitchen aid mixer. This is the old fashioned, stir 'til your muscles burn technique. The fudge is going to start to slowly harden and set up, and you want to make sure you are stirring to keep it malleable. So, for nearly 10 minutes you want to stir and take a break, and STIR, and take a break, and STIR and take a break, etc. until your fudge is getting pretty thick and you think your arm is going to fall off. NOW quickly pour your fudge into a buttered 9X13 pan.

Now you can take a spatula and spread out the mixture, you maybe have 60 good seconds to do this before it starts getting so hard you crack and crumble the top. The point is, pour it, smooth it out, and then don't mess with it. LET IT SIT. Leave it out, for a few hours. Give it a chance to harden up.
Finally, once it is hard(ish)...don't think it is going to get rock hard. In fact, sometimes it is soft but it is till delicious. Anyhow, once it has set you can cut it, serve it or package it up as gifts for your lucky friends.

Peanut buttery goodness doesn't even begin to describe it!

Here is the recipe for the chocolate-- no soft boil water test needed for this one!
4 1/2 c. sugar
1 can evap. milk
1 tsp butter
**Boil above ingredients for 5 minutes exactly. Remove from heat and quickly stir in:
1 small package of chocolate chips
1 jar marshmallow fluff
3 tsp vanilla
8 ounces german chocolate
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts
1/2 tsp salt

STIR, STIR, STIR-- same as the peanut butter, pour and let set for a few hours.

Cut and ENJOY!

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