The Fine Cooking Creamy Fudge recipe is one of my long-time favorites, and up until now (2023), I've always just linked to the recipe. Unfortunately it's no longer online, so I had to hunt it down and give you an adapted version. But maybe that's a good thing since I've had to make my own little adaptations. The end result, whether you use the original recipe from issue 102 of Fine Cooking or the adapted version,should be a very creamy but still stiff fudge.
Fine Cooking Creamy Chocolate Fudge Notes
This recipe is sweet, but not as sweet as the marshmallow versions out there. As for the texture, it is creamy but it has the flakiness you expect from good fudge. Unlike Fantasy Fudge or my other favorite fudge recipe (I'll add a link), Fine Cooking Creamy Fudge does not have marshmallows, chocolate chips or vanilla extract. The Fine Cooking fudge recipe calls for sugar, heavy cream, unsweetened chocolate, corn syrup, salt and butter.The flavor might be different based on what brand of chocolate you use and whether you actually use light corn syrup or something like Lyle's Golden, Karo Dark or even agave. All of these syrups work too.
Fudge With Unsweetened Chocolate and Cream
Compared to some of the other fudge recipes, this fudge recipe is less expensive because only calls for 4 oz of unsweetened chocolate rather than 18 oz of chocolate chips. Lately I've been making it with Guittard, which is probably one of the reasons it's so good. Ghirardelli unsweetened also works well, and I suspect a 95% Lindt bar would also work. You may want to make your first batch with Baker's or a less expensive brand to nail down the correct times and temps in your kitchen. Fudge takes practice.
8-Inch Pan and Loaf Pan Versions
The original recipe makes an 8-inch pan of fudge, which is actually a good amount since the fudge is so very rich and you can cut the pieces small. That said, you can also make ½ or ⅔ the recipe in a 3 quart saucepan. For a half batch, a foil lined loaf pan works well. For ⅔ of the batch, a disposable round pie tin works. If you scale the recipe down, be sure to keep the temperature climbing at a very slow and steady rate and expect the cook times to be slightly shorter.
10-20 Minute Mix Time
In the original Fine Cooking recipe, they beat the fudge for 10 to 20 minutes. I don't have the patience or the ears to stand and hold an electric mixer for that long, so I dump the hot fudge into the bowl or a stand mixer, let it cool to 110 and beat with the paddle (not the whisk) attachment.
Making fudge requires you to use visual and olfactory cues. Use the recipe as a guide, and take into account tips from other people. I've tried to add a few, but at the end of the day they may or may not work for you. This is just something you have to accept until you perfect the recipe in your own kitchen with your own pot and ingredients. .
Recipe
Creamy Chocolate Fudge
Equipment
- 1 4 quart heavy duty saucepan
Ingredients
- 3-¾ cups granulated sugar (750 grams)
- 1-½ cups heavy cream (12 oz/336 grams
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped or broken (114 grams)
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup (dark corn syrup also works) (54-60 grams)
- 1 teaspoon salt, scant
- 3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter; plus a little more at room temperature for buttering the thermometer and pan (42 grams)
Instructions
- Grease the face of a candy thermometer or a deep fry thermometer with butter. (Note: I use a deep fry thermometer).
- Off heat, combine sugar, cream, chocolate, corn syrup, and salt in a large (3 ½ to 5 quart) heavy-duty saucepan.
- Put the mixture over medium heat. Stirring gently, bring to a boil. This process should take 7 to 12 minutes depending on how cold your ingredients are to begin with. During this period you do stir constantly. Once the mixture reaches a steady boil, cover briefly (2 minutes), to steam clean the sides of the pan. This helps curb crystal formation.
- Insert a deep fry thermometer balancing it against the side of the pan so that bulb is in the center but does not touch the bottom. Let the mixture boil without stirring until it reaches 236°F to 238°F, 2 to 5 minutes. This is soft ball stage. With this recipe it's better to err on the side of undercooking than over, so don't let the temperature rise to over 238 max. Remove from the heat. If using a stand mixer, immediately pour into the stand mixer bowl.
- Plop the butter in without stirring it at all.
- Set the pan (or mixing bowl) on a rack in a cool part of the kitchen. Don’t disturb the pan in any way until the mixture has cooled to 110°F, This should take about 1 ½ hours.
- Meanwhile, line the bottom and sides of an 8x8-inch baking pan with foil or parchment. Butter the foil generously.
- Remove the thermometer from the 110 degree fudge mixture, and using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the mixture on high speed until it is a few shades lighter in color and thickens enough that the beaters form trails and expose bottom of the pan (or mixer bowl). With a stand mixer this should take around 10 minutes. With a handheld it could take up to 20. I only do this with a stand mixer so that's all I know. That, and don't scrape the sides of the bowl while mixing.
- When it's done, it will look a bit like canned frosting.
- Gently scrape the thickened fudge into the prepared pan, using a rubber spatula to help nudge it out of the pot. You can scrape the bottom of the pot or bowl, but not the sides.
- Smooth the top of the fudge with a spatula. Set the pan on a rack and let the fudge cool completely, about 2 hours. The fudge will be slightly soft the day it’s made but will firm up overnight.
- Turn the fudge out onto a clean cutting board and peel off the foil or parchment. Turn the slab of fudge right side up and cut
- Cut into 25 pieces.
Notes
The fudge will keep for a week to 10 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
nutrition information (per serving):
Calories (kcal): 190; Fat (g): fat g 9; Fat Calories (kcal): 80; Saturated Fat (g): sat fat g 6; Protein (g): protein g
1; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 2.5; Carbohydrates (g): carbs g 30; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 0; Sodium (mg):
sodium mg 100; Cholesterol (mg): cholesterol mg 25; Fiber (g): fiber g 1
Anna
Laura, I'm glad you mentioned that! I was worried about using the hand mixer too, so I beat the fudge with a wooden spoon for about a minute, then carefully (without scraping the sides) moved it to a bowl. Another thing you could try is using the same metal pan, but rubbing the sides with butter or spraying them with cooking spray. If the second time doesn't work for you, you might want to take a break from that recipe and try Alton Brown's or the Hershey recipe. Or there's always Fantasy Fudge!
Laura
Anna, thanks for the response. I would like to try it again, so maybe I'll use my non-stick saucepan. I was afraid to use it because of the hand mixer, but I guess I'll just be careful. I am determined to learn how to make fudge! By the way, I made your almond toffee yesterday and we LOVED it. Thanks for all the great recipes.
Anna
Laura, I'm so sorry you had to throw out a batch of fudge. If it helps, I know the feeling!
I wish I could tell you why that happened, but I'm still not an expert at making fudge. It sounds like it crystallized too early, which is a pretty common problem with fudge. I had that happen to be a couple of times and noticed it was worse when I used my all-clad metal saucepan. When I used my cheapo saucepan which just so happened to have a non-stick coating, I had better luck. So maybe the coating somehow helped prevent the crystallization? If you dare try the recipe again, you might want to change pans and see if you have better luck. That's one option. I wish I had a better answer for you, but I feel like I'm still a novice when it comes to fudge making.
Laura
I made the fudge yesterday, and unfortunately I had to throw it all out. After mixing with my hand mixer for about 3 minutes, the texture suddenly went from creamy and soft, to hard and grainy. I was unable to pour it into the pan - it just crumbled. The transformation happened in just a split second. I was so upset!
Do you have any idea what I might have done wrong? I did check the thermometer and it registered 212 in boiling water. But I still wonder if I cooked it too long - it seemed to take FOREVER to get to 234.
Anna
Hi Joan,
Other than blaming it on the weather, the only thing I can think of is maybe there was a hot spot in the fudge when you measured the temp. That is, maybe the area you measured was hot but the rest of the fudge mixture wasn't? I'm still not an expert on fudge, but I know that even the pros have failed batches here and there.
joan trueblood
Hi Anna, I made this fudge again yesterday. Delicious, fabulous texture, but a little soft when @ room temperature, similar to the last batch. At first I thought my thermometer (a very expensive digital one that my brother gave to me) may have been off, and perhaps I had undercooked it. But I checked it by dipping it into boiling water, and sure enough, it registered 212, so I know it was accurate when I cooked it to the specified temperature. I did transfer the cooled fudge to my stand mixer, and that worked well. But again, the fudge never hardened up enough to see the bottom of the bowl. I beat it for 20 minutes, then put in nuts and transferred it to the pan. Any thoughts on why it may be so soft?
joan
I made this fudge yesterday(full recipe), and it came out great! I was very nervous when I was making it because the beating of it took FOREVER (forty minutes), and it never thickened up to the point where I could see the bottom of the pan while I was mixing. I finally just gave up , mixed in some walnuts and poured it into the pan, hoping for the best. I don't know why the beating took so long (maybe my hand mixer wasn't powerful enough?) Anyway, I am very happy because of the many fudge failures I have had in the past, including the Fantasy Fudge, which I ended up tossing last year. I have renewed faith that I CAN DO THIS! The texture is awesome, very smooth and creamy. Thanks for inspiring me to try making fudge again. I hope you and your family are having a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Anna
Linda, the only problem with that when it hits 234 degrees, you're supposed to keep it still and not stir it at all. So I think moving it from the pot to the mixing bowl might disturb the fudge. However, you should be able to move it once it cools to 110. Mine was still pourable at this point (like a really, thick fudge sauce) and I was able to transfer it to a rubber mixing bowl. So I don't see why you couldn't carefully transfer it to a stand mixer. Just don't scrape the sides of the bowl. They say it's okay to scrape the bottom, but not the sides.
Fine Cooking
Wow! We are mighty proud. Thanks so much for spreading the sweetness of Fine Cooking:)
alyssa
Thanks Anna for the detailed tips and instructions... definitely a great help (and confidence booster) for a first time fudge maker!
Stephanie
Thanks for the review! I wanted to make this recipe as soon as I saw it- excited to see that it lives up to the billing. Can't wait to try it for the holidays. Or sooner. 🙂
Linda
Hi Anna, Do you think it would be OK that once it hits 234 degrees to immediately transfer to a mixing bowl so it can be beaten with a stand, rather than a hand, mixer?
Anna
Lu, I'm glad you asked. When I think of rocky road, I think of almonds and marshmallows, but sometimes I see rocky road made with peanuts. So you could throw in a handful of peanuts and marshmallows. Of course if I used peanuts I would re-name it "tin roof".
Lu
Yummy. I can't wait to try the fudge. Any suggestions on how to cut sweetness without nuts? My little one is allergic to all tree nuts. He can have peanuts though.
Dolce
Looks fantastic. I might even try it this week-end (which is a bad idea because I will be alone. In the kitchen. With fudge... )
Deb
Okay, I'm going to try it as soon as I find my candy thermometer! I see a possible trip to Sur la Table this weekend!
C L
:drool: This looks TOO good! For fudgy goodness like this recipe, I am willing to invest in a candy thermometer. 😉
clumbsycookie
I thought it was a brownie! That does look like a perfect piece of fudge, very shiny!!!
Louise
Did you allow it to firm up overnight before you cut it?
Katrina
Yeah for FC! Glad it worked so well.
Joanna from Colorado
Thank you so much for all the fudge reviews! I am going to make fudge for our mailman this year (going to start a tradition - my mom always did it for our mailman and garbage man in our small town at the holidays when I was little, but our garbage man always is changing, so I chose the mailman only), and I didn't know which to pick.
Thank you!
Anna
Alyssa, sure! I didn't want to go into it and make it more confusing for people who were planning to make the full batch, but the half batch does require adjustments.
Your best bet is to take a look at Alton Brown's fudge recipe because the boil times for a half batch of this are more in line with his.
Here's how I did it, and this was in an anodized aluminum saucepan rather than stainless steel. I kept overcooking it in my All-Clad and had better luck with different type metal.
1. I heated the sugar, cream, chocolate, salt and corn syrup over a medium low heat, stirring constantly, until they came to a good boil. If your mixture doesn't come to a boil over medium-low, up the temp to medium. Not all stoves have the same setting, but for a half batch it's best to start lower (or at least in my experience!). This will also vary based on what saucepan you use -- just don't rush it.
2. When the mixture comes to a good boil, reduce the heat and cover the pot so that it is still gently boiling. Keep it covered for about two minutes. Remove the cover and immediately insert the thermometer.
3. At this point, do not stir at all. Watch the thermometer rise slowly and steadily (up the heat if it stops for too long) until it hits 234. Remove from heat, add the butter, and let it stand for about 45 minutes or until the temp drops to 110.
4. Beat the mixture (don't scrape sides of pot) for about 7 minutes or until mixture starts leaving little trails and you can see the bottom of the pan.
My fudge didn't really go from shiny to matte. The only signal I had that it was ready to pour was the fact I could see little tracks being made (as advised by FC).
If you use a non-stick coated saucepan and don't want to use your hand-mixer for fear of damaging the coating, after the fudge hits 110 you can carefully transfer it (again, don't scrape sides) to a rubber mixing bowl and mix away!
The half batch doesn't make very much fudge at all. It should cover the surface area of a loaf pan.
Also, this fudge takes a while to set. Mine was soft when I poured it in the pan and seemed set after about an hour.
Sue
That looks good. I will definitely have to give it a try!! Thanks for the review!
alyssa
Hi Anna, that does look good! Would you be able to elaborate on the boiling times and temps you used for a half batch? I would be interested to try a smaller batch. THanks!
Anna
Cindy, I think you should make it today ;).
Laura, I've been using Ghirardelli 100% chocolate lately -- the type that comes in a 10 oz bag and costs about $3.99.
laura
What brand of unsweetened chocolate do you like to use?
CindyD
Congratulations! I think I'll wait till close to Christmas to make it.