I love making fudge and I love coming up with new flavors. Most have been a great success, but my butterscotch recipe is frustrating me. I can get a fabulous flavor the day I make it, but the vanilla fades within a day or so leaving me with something that’s not really butterscotch anymore. I’m already using 2 Tablespoons of double strength vanilla extract (real thing, good quality) to get the flavor I want. Adding more would just completely mess up the texture of the fudge.
So I was thinking I could use whole beans. I’ve never used them before so I have some questions:
Would I cook them in the candy on the stove or add at the end? I always add the extract right before whipping my fudge to keep the vanilla flavor strong, but I know that most often with the beans the seeds are steeped in the liquid. Would the high heat of the cooking (238 degrees F) damage the flavor?
Will this even work? How strong is the vanilla flavor when you use a bean and does the flavor last?
I plan to buy quality beans from a website rather than the over priced dried out beans at the grocery store but I want to know this is going to fix my fudge before I take the plunge.
For optimal use with a vanilla bean, the trick is to split them open and scrape out the seeds, combining both the seeds and stem with a liquid for maceration - removing the stem later.
What liquid component does your fudge have that you could do this process with? Like a strong tea, the vanilla needs time to infuse with a preferably warm liquid to release its aromas. Baking it isn’t going to damage it, but unless you have properly prepared the bean first, you aren’t going to get the flavors you want.
My fudge recipe has 1 1/2 cups of cream plus 1/4 c light corn syrup. The liquid component isn’t the problem. This is a candy by the way, not a brownie, so baking isn’t an issue. It is however cooked to a relatively high heat on the stove top and takes about 15-20 minutes to fully cook. I do know that vanilla can be a delicate flavor and my concern is the cooking process will destroy any flavor I may get from steeping the bean before cooking.
I wouldn’t worry about the heat killing the flavor of the bean at all – it is classically added to the hot milk/egg mixture of crème brûlée with no problem and those have a very vanilla flavor.
Just make sure to cut open and scrape out the seeds (instead of leaving them whole) and let it infuse with the cream.
Is there any granulated sugar in your fudge recipe? If so, keep the scraped-out pods and bury them in a jar of sugar, to flavor it as well. Even pods that have been steeped in milk or other ingredients can, after a bit of rinsing, impart flavor to the sugar. It won’t be as strong as adding freshly scraped pods, but it’s a good little add-on.
vanilla sugar is a good idea! I’ll try that too. Can I flavor brown sugar as well or does the vanilla get lost in the stronger flavors already there? My butterscotch recipe calls for both white and brown sugar. I do have a vanilla mint fudge that calls for all white, though, that loses the vanilla flavor quite quickly too. I would really like to have a vanilla flavor that stuck around. One of my favorite parts of my chocolate fudge is that it gets better as it sits, the texture smooths out and the flavors get better. It would be nice to have something similar with the vanilla flavored fudges. Just to be clear, this is not marshmallow cream, sweetened condensed milk, or any other type of “quick” fudge. I make true old fashioned whipped fudge.
I guess I’m going to have to just bite the bullet and buy the beans and experiment. I can report back with my findings (and recipe) if anyone is interested.
Anyone else want to weigh in on this one with advice?
You’re already using what sounds to me like an enormous amount of vanilla (though you don’t mention your batch size or extract concentration). And you say the flavor is good at first, then fades, which suggests an issue of volatility. I think you might have been on the right track thinking that heat is a factor.
Vanilla sugar is great, but pretty mild compared to a good intense alcohol extraction, IME.
It is an enormous amount of vanilla. The recipe makes 2lbs of fudge. In other flavors I use 2 teaspoons of vanilla and it’s plenty. The extract I’m using is supposed to be a good quality brand and is listed as “double strength.” I add the vanilla at the end of the process when the candy has cooled to 110 degrees right before I beat it. There is some heat, but not a lot left.
I was hoping that getting the flavor directly from the bean itself would solve the volatility problem. I suppose that most things that are made with vanilla just don’t sit around long. I make fudge as Christmas gifts, however, and I need it to last at least a week (although longer would be nice. Fudge has a shelf life of longer than three weeks normally.)
I’ve only ever flavored white sugar, so I definitely would recommend it as your primary goal, with vanilla brown sugar as an experiment. It sounds like a really yummy product.
What size of pan is two pounds of fudge? I know I make cake recipes that use a 9 x 13 pan and have two teaspoons of vanilla, and you can barely taste the vanilla at the end. (Of course, those are baked for a lot longer than your fudge is held at a high temperature.)
I usually put my fudge in a loaf pan so it gives me a nicely shaped brick of fudge just a little over 2 inches high.
the fudges that use the lesser amount of vanilla are my peanut butter, chocolate, and penuche. they don’t need the strong vanilla flavor. I think flavors are a little different in candy than they are in baking, often stronger.
I make fudge as Christmas gifts, however, and I need it to last at least a week (although longer would be nice. Fudge has a shelf life of longer than three weeks normally.)