I have made old fashioned fudge at least 30 times and it always turned out, until recently. I cook the sugar and milk combo til 235 or soft ball stage and then let it cool to 110 and stir til loses its gloss. What is happening these last few times is this: after soft ball stage when it is cooled to 110 I start to stir but the syrup never looses its shine . the crystilization of the molecules is not happening. From what i understand this is what gives you a solid and thus makes fudge. Is that right? I can’t figure out what i’m doing differently or wrong. When the syrup cools I either get a thick syrup or a almost caramel of sorts. Please help. Thank you
Short answer - you’re not cooking it to a high enough temperature.
The higher of a temp you cook sugar, in general, the harder it is when it cools (as is obvious by the fact that “hard ball” is a higher temperature than “soft ball.”)
So next time let it get a little hotter.
I have a candy thermometer but I always still do the cold water test and make sure it is testing out quite firm before taking it off the heat.
If you go too far, the fudge will get grainy, so it’s a bit of a dance.
Cooking and food threads do best in Café Society. Moved from General Questions.
samclem, moderator.
I tried what you suggested. But the same thing happened. Turned into caramel. I was thinking maybe i am not stirring enough when it has cooled down? What do you think? I use a thermometer. i know it is calibrated correctly because iv tested it with boiling water at 212.
still looking for help with my fudge problem. My recipe is 1 and half cups brown sugar, half a cup of white sugar, half a cup of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of corn syrup. if this helps figure it out?
If you have 20 minutes, Alton Brown did an entire Good Eats episode on making fudge.
Excuse me, I realize this isn’t helpful but… fudge isn’t crystalyzed. Solidified, yes. Crystal, no. In fact, if it does get grainy - the grains are crystals.
So you don’t want it to crystallyze, you want it to solidify. Try higher temperature, less water, a pot or bowl that’s not super new, and less-vigorous stirring.
Just out of curiosity, did you move? Has the humidity in your area changed? Also was your fudge grainy before and now it’s smooth? If it’s been solid because it was grainy, you’ve been doing it wrong. You should never have recognizable sugar crystals in fudge. If you’ve moved to a higher elevation, you’ll need to cook it to a higher temp. If it’s more humid, try cooking a little longer.
I did a pretty thorough blog post on fudge making. This is how I do it. I do disagree with Alton Brown on the light stirring thing. I use a stand mixer and wouldn’t make fudge without it.
No chocolate?
If you want to tinker with your recipe try leaving out the corn syrup.
no. Don’t take out the corn syrup. The corn syrup is the most essential ingredient for getting the right texture on your fudge. It’s a different form of sugar, fructose, and resists crystallization better than sucrose.
Actually the low level of corn syrup in the OPs recipe is what makes me think they’ve been making it wrong all this time. A tablespoon of corn syrup would offer almost no crystallization protection. The recipe I use the most uses 1/4 c.