Help needed making fudge

I've never made fudge but I was watching masterchef last night and one of the contestants had to make sugar shards. The first time she heated the sugar to 160degrees farenheit and it didn't set solid so she had to re-do it. She'd made a mistake as the guy had said 160 degrees and actually meant celcius (hope I've got that the right way round basically which ever is the hottest is the right one).

Not sure if thats any help or not but it does seem to be very important that you heat it up hot enough. She wasn't using a special pan, but I'd use one with a nice thick base as they hold the heat the best, gas is probably better than electric as I should expect electric hobs have a cut off at a certain temperature but thats just a guess.

oooh, jules, can I have a copy of that too! I love cooking but anything that involves boiling sugar I try to avoid!!

ooh, do you have a cake monster too!! There is one living in our kitchen apparently too!! H2B quite often blames the cats, although quite how they removed the lid from the cake tin AND replace it is beyond me... ?

I keep hearing things about 'FAVOURS' could someone enlighten me as to what these are about?

Cheers

Hi Jules,

That would be great if you post the reciepe, thanks alot your a star.

Sam

Hi Puddledops,

Traditionally favours are given to the guests to symbolise the ackowledgement of sharing the brides special day.

Traditionally the favours are 5 sugared almonds wrapped up. Each almond represents Health, Wealth, Happiness, Long Life and Fertitity.

Hope this helps.

Sam

I make fudge, well tablet which is a kind of fudge (Scottish I think), on a fairly regular basis. It can be a pain getting it upto temperature but it is doable. I often think it must be ready as it is seriously bubbling and boiling but when I actually take it's temperature, it's no where near. I just have to keep stirring and waiting for the temperature to rise. It is a slow process but it is just a case of keep going until it does get there.

Do you test it to see what stage it is at too? I drop a bit into water too see how sticky/gooey/soft ball/hard ball it is. Whilst in theory this is done when you haven't got a thermometer, I find it useful to see how the mixture is coming along. (Also a great excuse for being able to eat a bit of it too ?

HTH

C ?

Hi

I don't know what recipe you use but I've used this one loads of times and it works fab! I think someone else posted it on here ages ago!

Fudge

500ml (2cups) sugar
75 ml (5Tbsp) water
30ml (2 Tbsp) golden syrup
60g (4 Tbsp) butter
1 can (397g) Nestle Condensed Milk
5ml (1tsp) vanilla essence

1) Place sugar and water into a heavy saucepan. Stir over a low heat
until the sugar has dissolved.
2) Add the syrup and butter, stir till butter has melted.
3) Add the condensed Milk and stir until the mixture comes to the boil.
boil slowly, stirring all the time, until the soft ball stage is reached- +- 25minutes (I find it takes a bit longer). (Place a drop of the mixture into a glass of water and it should form a soft ball when rolled between your fingers.)
4) Remove from the heat, add vanilla add beat mixture with a wooden spoon until it begins to thicken. Pour into a greased 18x28 cm pan and leave to cool.
5) Cut into squares when almost cold.