White Holiday Fudge Recipe: White Chocolate Caramel Fudge Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good fudge? ›

White chocolate fudge is a type of confectionery that is made from white chocolate, sugar, butter, and condensed milk.

What is fudge? While caramel usually contains just one key ingredient, fudge is made from a perfectly balanced mixture of sugar, butter, and milk. Plus, it's not heated as high — around 115 degrees Celsius.

Fudge Didn't Set

If your fudge turned out super sticky, or it didn't set as it cooled, it probably never got hot enough. This mistake is super easy to avoid if you use a candy thermometer and cook the fudge to the temperature specified in the recipe (usually between 234 and 239°F).

Fudge can turn into caramel due to overcooking or undercooking, incorrect temperatures, or wrong ingredients.

You have to control two temperatures to make successful fudge: the cooking temperature AND the temperature at which the mixture cools before stirring to make it crystallize. Confectionery experiments have shown that the ideal cooking temperature for fudge is around 114 to 115 °C (237 to 239 °F).

White chocolate is coagulated cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is the vegetable oil that comes from cocoa beans. White chocolate has no cocoa powder in it, which is why it tastes the way it does, and why it is white instead of brown like chocolate is.

History of White Chocolate

At the time, Nestlé was manufacturing a dietary supplement for children and adults called Nestrovit. This was a milk powder that was enriched with minerals and vitamins. To make Nestrovit more appealing to children, Nestlé attempted to turn the milk powder into a solid bar.

Fudge (Chocolate and Otherwise)

Aside from these ingredients, fudge is generally comprised simply of milk, sugar, and butter as the base. To this basic recipe, one can add chocolate chips, butterscotch, peanut butter chips, white chocolate, or even espresso powder to create compelling flavor combinations.

You should use refined white granulated or caster sugar to make caramel. Avoid using brown sugar or raw cane sugar as they contain impurities that inhibit caramelisation and also the already brown colour can make it harder to assess when the all important reaction is taking place.

Can I use caramel instead of condensed milk? ›

For my filling, I simply swap the condensed milk for tinned carnation caramel (a.k.a. dulce de leche) instead. This tinned caramel is actually made from sweetened condensed milk so it's essentially the same thing but it's pre-caramelised for you!

Caramel is a candy created when sugar is heated to 340 degrees Fahrenheit (170 degrees Celsius). As sugar is heated slowly to this temperature, the molecules break down and form new compounds that have a deep, rich flavor and dark golden brown color.

While you ultimately want crystals to form, it's important that they don't form too early. The key to successful, nongrainy fudge is in the cooling, not the cooking. The recipe calls for heating the ingredients to the soft-ball stage, or 234° F, then allowing it to cool undisturbed to approximately 110° F.

There are lots of fudge recipes around which don't use vanilla at all (it's a treat which is very open to experimentation in general). So if you don't add vanilla, it won't taste like vanilla, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will taste bad, have the wrong consistency or behave differently when cooked and cooled.

OPTION 4) If you think the reason it didn't set was because you didn't heat it to the right temperature, you could try putting it back into the pan and re-cooking.

It is important to stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to thicken and its surface starts to look dull or matte. Now is the time to stop beating and pour the fudge into a mould. Another tip: Do not scrape the sides of the pan or the spoon used for stirring.

Cream of tartar is used in caramel sauces and fudge to help prevent the sugar from crystallizing while cooking. It also prevents cooling sugars from forming brittle crystals, this is why it's the secret ingredient in snickerdoodles!

If the sugar crystals are not properly dissolved before cooling, they can create a gritty texture. To avoid this, ensure that you stir the fudge mixture consistently and remove any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan using a wet pastry brush.