Grandma's Old Fashioned Fudge {Classic Stovetop recipe} (2024)

FAQs

Is evaporated milk or condensed milk better for fudge? ›

The sweetened condended milk is needed as no extra sugar is added to the fudge. If evaporated milk were used then the fudge would not be sweet enough and also would still be too soft unless the fudge is frozen.

Grainy Fudge

To avoid this issue, swirl the pan instead of stirring it with a spoon. You can use a wet pastry brush to wipe down any sugar that sticks to the sides of the pot.

The most common culprit behind unset fudge is inaccurate temperature control. If the sugar mixture hasn't reached the correct temperature, your fudge won't set. Ensure you use a reliable candy thermometer and follow temperature guidelines meticulously to achieve the desired consistency.

The main reason is that your Fudge has not reached the optimum temperature. If your mixture only reaches 110 or 112 degrees Celsius it will always be soft. That's why we recommend investing in a sugar thermometer. Another reason your Fudge is not setting is that the ratio of liquid to sugar is too high.

For the most part, if you find yourself without condensed milk on hand, you can substitute an equal amount of evaporated milk. The consistency will be the same, but since evaporated milk is unsweetened, you'll need to add sweetener to match the recipe's intended flavor profile or to suit your personal preference.

Don't stir!

Once the fudge reaches soft-ball stage on the candy thermometer, remove from the heat and let the temperature drop to 110°F. Keep that spoon or spatula out of the pot until this happens. If you stir too early in the process, you'll make the sugar crystals too big and end up with grainy fudge.

Saucepan: Choose a heavy, straight-sided metal saucepan that holds about twice the volume of your fudge recipe. A heavy pan distributes heat evenly so the ingredients are less likely to scorch when they boil at high temperature. Using a large saucepan gives the ingredients room to expand when they boil.

By letting the fudge cool without stirring, you avoid creating seed crystals. Stirring would help sucrose molecules "find" one another and start forming crystals. Stirring also introduces air, dust, and small dried bits from the walls of the saucepan—all potential seeds for crystal formation.

What went wrong with my fudge? ›

If your fudge is tough, hard, or grainy, then you may have made one of several mistakes: You may have overcooked it, beaten it too long, or neglected to cool it to the proper temperature.

If the fudge is very soft and slightly chewy then it is possible that it did not quite cook to soft ball stage and next time the mixture should be cooked to a slightly higher temperature (soft ball is 112-116c/235-240F and a sugar or candy thermometer can help).

Options for what you can do with your unset fudge:

OPTION 1) Depending on how runny it is, you can either use it as a frosting for cakes, or a sauce for ice-cream. OPTION 2) Freeze it overnight. Cut it into squares. Cover each square thickly in melted chocolate, ensuring no part of the fudge is exposed.

Once the fudge has cooled, you can choose to make the fudge easily, or you can “elect the way of pain”. Stirring fudge by hand is hard, tiring, and can break your wooden spoon. Fudge can be beaten successful with a mixer. It is okay to stop the mixer periodically (it won't set immediately like ice cream does).

The ingredients for fudge are combined and cooked to 234 degrees, cooled to 110 degrees without stirring, then beaten until creamy. Candy that isn't cooked long enough will end up too soft; overcooking makes fudge crumbly or hard.

Evaporated milk and condensed milk are both shelf-stable canned milks that are easily found at most grocery stores. The main difference is that condensed milk is very sweet, and evaporated milk is unsweetened.

– There are a number of reasons why the fudge was grainy. It might be that you haven't dissolved all the sugar before boiling the fudge mixture. It could be that there just wasn't enough fluid or fat to enable the sugar to dissolve or it might even be that the fudge wasn't beaten long enough or hard enough.

As the name suggests, sweetened condensed milk makes the pie sweeter and gives it a denser, creamier texture. Evaporated milk, on the other hand, yields a lighter, airier result. Evaporated milk isn't sweetened either, which is why you can't simply swap one thickener for the other.

Because condensed milk is more concentrated than the same volume of regular milk, it contains more lactose. Sweetened condensed milk includes a lot of calories, but it also has a lot of saturated fat, which is dangerous for people with diabetes and heart issues.