Another food holiday! It can’t get any better than this. May 12th is National Nutty Fudge Day.
Did you know that fudge is said to have been invented in the U.S. in the late 1880s. I even read somewhere that the first batch was a result of a bungled batch of caramels. I’m not sure that I really believe that one. But historians say that the main component for fudge was very similar to Scots Tablet found in the Household Bood of the the Lady Grisell Baillie (1692-1733). The term ‘fudge’ is often used in the UK for a soft variant of the tablet recipe.
One of the first documented examples of American fudge (containing chocolate!) can be found in a letter written by Emelyn Batersby Hartridge, a Vassar College student, who wrote that a friend’s cousin made fudge in Baltimore in 1886 and sold it for 40 cents a pound. Hartridge asked for the fudge recipe, and in 1888 made 30 pounds of the fudge for the Vassar Senior Auction. In The Candy Book (Alice Bradley, 1929) an entire chapter is devoted to fudge.
I’m sure that my fudge recipe differs very much from what you would find in a traditional fudge recipe but I am told by many of my friends that it is the best fudge they ever had!
ChiaPet Rescue’s Creamy Nutty Fudge
2 packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz)
1 large chocolate bar (I use the 7 oz Hershey bar)
1 C marshmallow cream
1 can evaporated milk
4 1/2 C sugar
Nuts (I like to use Black Walnuts)
Grease 2 or 3 square cake pans with butter. Combine chocolate chips, chocolate bar, nuts, and marshmallow cream in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
In a large pot, combine milk and sugar. Bring to a boil over med-high heat. Once the mixture begins to boil, continue boiling for 6 minutes. Pour mixture over the chocolate mixture and beat until well blended. (caution, if you are using a kitchen aid, use the large paddle and mix slowly at first. mixture is EXTEMELY hot).
Once the fudge is well blended, pour into greased pans. I usually pound the pans on my counter a couple of times to even out the fudge.
Cool, cut, and wrap with colorful plastic wrap.
Chia Pet Rescue
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