Every year for as long as I can remember, we have had fudge for the holidays. My great-grandmother, who was a wonderful cook, would pull a tin out of the freezer and let you have one square before dinner. And then she would send the tin full of fudge home with us! What a treat!
I’m pretty sure the real name for this recipe is Remarkable Fudge, my Mom taught me how to make it years ago, and I have to call it Fantastic Fudge because the other adjective doesn’t do it justice, in my opinion. You’re going to need a candy thermometer for this recipe, it will not work unless you are patient and get the mixture to minimum 234 degrees.
Fantastic Fudge
4 c sugar
12 oz evaporated milk
1 c butter (2 sticks)
12 oz semi sweet chocolate
2 c marshmallow cream
1 t vanilla
1 c walnuts (optional)
Butter the sides of a 3 qt saucepan. Combine sugar, milk and butter in saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches soft ball stage, 234-240 degrees. This process can take 30-45 minutes. Remove from heat and add chocolate, marshmallow cream vanilla and nuts, stirring until well blended. Pour into a buttered 13×9 glass baking dish and allow to cool. Cut into squares and then refrigerate. Makes 4-5 dozen.
howsyourlovelife 
Reblogged this on Hitched&Happiness and commented:
Yummy!!
Thanks for the re-blog!
Butter the sauce pan? Never heard that before. I’ll give that a try. I am the official Christmas fudge maker in our family which means no one else wants to do it so I get stuck with it every year. Never make the mistake of doing an undesirable job well. Bought the thermometer long ago. Patience is the trick. Rush the boil and you burn the sugar. The big request here is peanut butter fudge. It easy to use too much and add unintended extra oil to the mix.
I wonder if buttering the pan has any real significance or is just a traditional habit passed down by someone years ago, like the lady who cut of the small end of her hams before baking them because that’s what her mother did. She thought it was the proper way or it was to save the end for seasoning something else. When she asked her mother about it, she laughed and said it was because her oven was too small for the hams.
Buttering the pan prevents sticking. I think this is an old recipe, made for the days before non-stick pans! I have learned over the years to use a larger pan, like a Dutch oven, to make the heating process shorter. But it’s still a patience tester.
I use something like a stockpot. The two handles help when it comes time to pour. I hold and someone else scrapes.