Caramel Fudge (and variations)

Thanks to Alison Holst for starting me off on this fudge journey with her "warming food for cooler days" cook book.

Method Overview

1. Mix ingredients at low temperature until everything (in particular sugar) is dissolved
2. Heat quickly to 117°C
3. Add extra salt, then cool quickly to room temperature

Ingredients (Caramel Fudge)

• 3 cups sugar (675g)
• 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (200g)
• 125 grams butter
• 250ml milk
• 30ml golden syrup
• 1 tsp extra salt (for finishing)
• [1 tsp vanilla essence or 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder — optional]
• [1 cup chopped and lightly toasted nuts — optional]

Ingredients (Half recipe)

• 1 1/2 cups sugar (330g)
• 1/4 can sweetened condensed milk (100g)
• 75 grams butter
• 125ml milk
• 15ml golden syrup (or invert syrup)
• 1/2 tsp extra salt (for finishing)
• [1 tsp vanilla essence or 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder — optional]
• [1 cup chopped and lightly toasted nuts — optional]

Ingredients (Dark Caramel Fudge)

As for caramel fudge, but replace golden syrup with 1 tsp molasses (or 1/2 tsp for a half recipe)

Ingredients (Lemon Caramel Fudge)

As for caramel fudge, but add the grated rind from one lemon into the butter mixture, chopped into tiny pieces. A pinch of baking soda can be added at the same time to reduce curdling, but may require foam management (see notes below).

Ingredients (Jaffa Fudge)

As for caramel fudge, but add the grated rind from one orange into the butter mixture, chopped into tiny pieces, as well as one tablespoon of cocoa

Ingredients (Coconut Fudge)

• 3 cups sugar (675g)
• 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (200g)
• 125 grams butter
• 250ml coconut cream
• 30ml invert syrup (or glucose syrup)
• pinch salt
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• [1 tsp vanilla essence; optional]

Ingredients (Chocolate Fudge)

• 2.5 cups sugar (575g)
• 1 c (250 mls) cream
• 50 g butter
• 250ml milk
• 150g 72% Whittakers Chocolate (or equvalent with 30-40% sugar, 30-40% fat by weight)
• pinch salt
• [1 tsp vanilla essence or 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder — optional]
• [1 cup chopped and lightly toasted nuts — optional]

Ingredients (Milk Powder Fudge), half recipe

Derived from countdown information — Condensed milk: 55% sugar, 7.5% protein, 8% fat; Standard milk: 4.7% sugar, 3.3% protein, 3.3% fat; Butter: 81.4% fat; Milk Powder: 24.2% protein, 26.5% fat, 37.9% sugar. Half recipe contains 412g sugar, 11.5g protein, 62g fat.

Milk powder and water should be mixed first, using all milk powder with 1/4 cup water, then gradually add the remaining water while mixing.

• 50g milk powder (19g sugar, 12g protein, 13g fat)
• 1/4c + 1/2c (190 mls) water
• 375g sugar
• 60g butter
• 15ml invert syrup
• pinch baking soda (to reduce curdling)
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp extra salt (for finishing)
• [1 tsp vanilla essence or 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder — optional]
• [1 cup chopped and lightly toasted nuts — optional]

Notes

• The sugar/butter ratio is important for fudge (along similar lines to the logic of this), but most other things can be varied considerably. What you are trying to do is heat the sugar up until just enough has caramelised to give the right consistency. Over the process of cooking, water will evaporate off, raising the boiling temperature of the remaining syrup.
• The maximum heating temperature is also very important. Too hot and the fudge will be brittle, too cool and the fudge will turn (very slowly) into mush.
• Lemon and Jaffa fudge will curdle a bit as the temperature gets above 60ish degrees. This doesn't seem to have a bad impact on the final fudge, though. The curds break down a bit during the higher temperature heating, and break down further after the fudge starts to crystallise.
• I have tried adding 1/4 tsp baking soda to mandarin rind to reduct the curdling. It works, but introduces an additional problem: foam (from the release of carbon dioxide). Make sure if you do this to allow for approx 2X expansion of liquid volume. It also took longer to crystallise, possibly because I kept it at too low a temperature while waiting for the bubbles to disappear, so it caramelised more than usual. In other words, it makes really silky smooth fudge, with tiny crystals, and may be better kept in the fridge rather than in a pantry (or left a long time to dry out, and kept away from hot areas).
• The golden syrup can be replaced with invert syrup, treacle, glucose syrup, or honey. I expect that pretty much any sugar syrup will work fine as a replacement.
• I prefer to use a wooden spoon or wooden paddle for making fudge. I don't know exactly why I do this.
• Don't be tempted to double the recipe — the cooking behaviour is quite different. If you want to do multiple batches, you can get away with dissolving (and holding) everything at 80°C, then taking one batch at a time out to heat up for the remainder of the recipe.
• These are all anecdotal notes. Take all advice here with a grain of salt.
• The extra salt is optional, but I have found the crystallisation process (after starting cooling) more reliable when I've added salt at the end.

Preparation

• Fill the kitchen sink with about 5cm cold water
• Cover a flat metal sheet or pan with baking paper. The fudge will cover about a 25cm diameter circle.

Method

note: stir constantly for steps 1-5

1. Mix all the ingredients (except for vanilla and nuts) together in a saucepan (A).
2. Heat very slowly until the sugar is completely dissolved (B). I check this by listening for scratchy noises and sampling the syrup with a clean teaspoon. If you are able to hold it at a temperature, you should be able to heat quickly to 80°C and hold it there until dissolved.
3. Heat fast to 117 degrees celsius (or until the very beginning of the firm-ball stage)
   • If using a probe thermometer, heat until the probe first reads this temperature, remembering to stir to keep the heat fairly uniform.
   • The syrup is almost ready when it forms a convex shape at its edge when dropped onto a plate, i.e. it spreads slightly in the middle, but not at the surface or near the plate (C).
   • After cooling down to room temperature, a good syrup should recover slightly (but not completely) when pressed (e.g. a dent, but no fingerprints), a bit like well-kneaded dough.
   • The syrup should hold shape in cold water, but mostly collapse when leaving water (tastes slightly firm).
4. Add flavouring, nuts, and extra salt (if desired).
5. Remove from heat and place saucepan into the sink to cool down fast (D), stirring until the stirring becomes difficult, the fudge becomes a bit lighter, and starts feeling (or tasting) rough or grainy (E).
6. If the caramel is not grainy after cooling to room temperature, reheat briefly until it just begins to crystallise, then cool again. The fudge will become lighter and less transparent when the crystallisation happens.
7. Pour out onto baking paper (F), spread out to about 2cm thick. For a good fudge, the ridges formed in the process of pouring should remain after pouring (G). Wait about 1-2 hours, then cut into pieces (H, I).
   • If the fudge is overcooked, it will be brittle, and break easily when trying to cut into pieces with a knife after cooling. This can be rescued to some degree by cutting (or at least scoring) during the cooling stage.
   • If the fudge is slightly undercooked (i.e. it retains its external shape, but heals up when cut with a knife), it may need refrigerating before cutting. Remember that the fudge will be slightly sticky (and self-healing) when raised back to room temperature, so try to keep the pieces separate.
   • If the fudge is substantially undercooked (i.e. it forms a smooth surface when poured out and has not crystallised), heat it quickly back to boiling until it just starts to crystallise. Or just use it as fudge sauce for topping ice cream, putting in melting moments, etc.

Additional note on cooling

I am aware that there is a suggestion that you should let the hot syrup cool before stirring into a fudge. However, the fast-cool method outlined here works for me and I don't see any reason to do otherwise. As long as you stir constantly during the cooling process, and turn out the fude onto a tray as soon as crystals start forming, I don't expect that there will be a problem with large crystal formation at any temperature. Heating is a bigger problem for this, which is why I recommend letting the sugar dissolve first before trying to get the syrup to the correct temperature. If there are sugar crystals left in the mixture before cooling, it will create an unpleasant grainy taste in the fudge, which would probably end up worse with a long cooling time (because the crystals have more time to form).

I hope you enjoy your fudge!