gringer's Russian Fudge

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

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk (~200g)
• 4 ounces (125 grams) butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• pinch salt
• [1 teaspoon 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.
• I have tried replacing the condensed milk / milk combination with 2 cups of milk (twice). The result was a curdled milk mixture, which I sort of rescued by turning into fudge sauce (cook to about 112°C).
• Use less golden syrup for a lighter fudge. Golden syrup can be replaced with treacle, about one tablespoon of treacle for 2 tablespoons of golden 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.
• I prefer to use a wooden spoon or wooden paddle for making fudge. I don't know exactly why I do this.

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

1. Mix all the ingredients (except for vanilla and nuts) together in a saucepan.
2. Heat very slowly until the sugar is completely dissolved. I check this by listening for scratchy noises and sampling the syrup with a clean teaspoon.
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.
   • 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).
   • 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.
   • syrup should hold shape in cold water, but mostly collapse when leaving water (tastes slightly firm).
   • if too hot, rescue the overcooked caramel by adding about 2 tablespoons water, reheat to boiling, then retest (repeat with 2 tbsp water if necessary)
4. Add flavouring & nuts if desired.
5. Remove from heat and place saucepan into the sink to cool down, stirring until stirring becomes difficult.
   • if syrup doesn't start to thicken within ~15 seconds of stirring, the syrup was probably undercooked -- reheat to boiling and try again
6. Pour out onto baking paper, spread out to about 2cm thick. For a good fudge, the ridges formed in the process of pouring should remain after pouring. Wait about 1-2 hours, then cut into pieces.
   • if 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 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 pieces separate.
   • if fudge is substantially undercooked (i.e. it forms a smooth surface when poured out), re-dissolve in 1 cup water (step 2), and heat again. 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, I don't expect that there will be a problem with large crystal formation. 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! If you have comments or questions, feel free to e-mail me. I will add the interesting emails about fudge to this page.

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