HELP! FUDGE/TOFFEE! REPEATED DISASTER!!!

[CalamityKate]

Right. When I was little, I used to make fudge. Simple recipe:

1lb sugar
4oz marg
Small tin evaporated milk.

It never, EVER failed. It produced a granular fudge, varying in firmness depending on how long I cooked it. Sometimes I cooked it to a weak tea colour. Sometimes I cooked it to a coffee colour. Sometimes, if I was careless, it ended up with burnt bits in it but it still tasted fine.

The point is, whatever I did, however long I cooked it for, it turned into granular fudge.

It never went wrong. At the risk of boring everyone, I can't stress this enough.

BUT NOW!!!!

It goes to toffee. Whether I cook it pale, or dark, or fast, or slow, it keeps turning to toffee!!! Sometimes, the middle goes granular and fudge-y and the edges go to toffee, but mainly, lately, it's been toffee all the way rather than the fudge I used to make.

What the hell is happening??? Same recipe. Same (admittedly varying) method. Completely different result.

IN FACT!! I've just remembered - when I used to cook it as a child, I actively TRIED to make toffee a few times because I loved toffee. Never worked. However long/short the cooking time, it always stayed resolutely fudge

I need Heston, don't I?

this one always works for me, and I am shit at cooking :)

Thanks - I'll try that next time!

But I'd still love to know why mine has stopped working - honestly, it was absolutely FOOLPROOF!

It could be the pan. Is it a heavy base one that you used to use? I made fudge over Christmas which turned out perfect but made another batch in a thinner base pan and it turned to toffee as it heated too quickly and unevenly.

Ah.... it may well be that the pan I use is not as heavy based as my Mum's ones that I used as a child.

I tried again earlier, and was semi-successful, in that on cooling, the stuff in the middle of the tray was fudge, but the edges were half fudge, half toffee.

This might be what you need - I call it magic fudge because it's fool-proof. Chocolate fudge. Yumsh! :)

Thanks Flubba - just made some! Will report back

Yumm! Check it in an hour or so to cut it before it sets too hard. Then chuck us a piece or two (virtual chocolate surely doesn't count as breaking my giving-up-choc for lent)

Well... I think I used a bit too much chocolate (had 2x100g bars and one 150g one so 10g more than the recipe called for), which made it a bit TOO chocolatey, but the kids and even DP liked it!

I still prefer plain fudge. I made a batch of that last night, using a slightly different recipe (condensed milk rather than evap), which involved dunking the pan in cold water at the end. For a while, it seemed as if I'd made toffee again, but when it cooled in the dish it went back to granular.

I'm determined to get it right. It's become something of an obsession.

Try a bit less chocolate and some nuts which seem to cut the over-chocolateyness (sure it's a word?! :o).

You're right though, good old vanilla fudge is yummier, but it's such a faff and I can't always get it right. Maybe try this one

Hi there, sorry to have dug up an old thread, but I thought someone out there may find it useful. I've been googling the absolute same problem - why my fudge turned to toffee and after extensive reading I've decided that it must have been because I accidentally heated the mixture to hard ball stage rather than soft ball. Sugar syrups are finicky and you really got to monitor everything closely.

I do use a thermometer (and it's a good one as far as I can tell, but can be a tad slow) and I heat to 116C which is the max temp for soft ball. It's always worked so far but in the matter of seconds my mixture must have heated to above 116C :( Then, no matter how long I whisked it, it just kept expelling oil and being a toffee.

Obviously next time I gotta aim for 114C (soft ball is between 112C and 116C).

(BTW the most fool-proof way to make a proper grainy fudge, along with making sure you've heat it to the exact right temperature, is to whisk it because that's the easiest, controlled way to create tiny sugar crystals. Before whisking, you have to stand the mixture for a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on batch size, so it cools to 110C. If you start whisking at above 110C, larger crystals will form and you'll get an overly-grainy fudge)

There's an extensive discussion on the fudge/toffee subject here

When it goes granular you have made tablet.

Would using a different sugar affect the texture??? I made vanilla fudge with brown sugar last night and it was pretty perfect! Made some today, with granulated white sugar, and its not setting properly! Tastes like fudge, but its too soft!!!

This thread was started in 2012!