Fudge

I said that fudge would be coming soon, so here goes:

Before making fudge at all, I sought recipes in Joy of Cooking and quite a few other chocolate cookbooks, and this recipe, by far, is the best one I've found. It is adapted from Nancy Baggett's The International Chocolate Cookbook; a treasure of  a book that I found on the clearance rack at a neighborhood bookstore for $1.98! 

I've tried making several types of fudge - with chocolate exclusively, with nuts, with brown and regular sugar - and my favorite and the one that seems to work the best (in the sense that it is dense and fudgy) is the recipe I've adopted with brown and regular sugars. I know that I will receive a healthy dose of opposition and cantankerous disapproval from one neighbor up the road for the consumption of sugar at all, but there are very few things which hearten the soul and enrich your head like chocolate in the form of fudge. These little bars are easier to make than my brownie recipe (I won't tell you - at least not now - how much sugar goes into those!) and just as good. 

This fudge recipe is somewhat laborious in the sense that there is a lot of stirring and waiting involved, but - OMG!!!! - the result is worth every effort.

Fudge with Pecans

Take a large piece of aluminum foil (shiny side down) and place it over the outside of the pan (9x13 is good) to shape it so you can line the inside of the pan. Set aside.

2-1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 pound chocolate cut into small pieces

1 stick unsalted butter

1 cup heavy cream

1/8 tsp. salt

2-1/2 tbl. vanilla

2 cups coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

Mix both sugars and the salt over heat, add half of the cream and bring to the boil. Add the butter and the chocolate and bring to the boil again and stir until mixed. Gently pour in the remaining cream and continue to gently boil undisturbed for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, scrape any sugar residue down from the sides of the pan and let cool without stirring to about 115º. After it has cooled sufficiently, begin stirring vigorously with a metal spoon or spatula for about 10 minutes or so until the chocolate has lost its gloss and starts to thicken. (You can also place the pan in a bowl of ice water to hasten the cooling time.) At this point, add the nuts if you are using them and pour the fudge into the prepared pan lined with foil. Take an offset spatula and evenly spread out the fudge. Let cool. Place in refrigerator for a couple of hours until the fudge is hardened. Remove from the refrigerator and invert onto a marble slab or cutting board and remove foil. Take a sharp long knife and cut fudge into squares. Store in a plastic container in layers separated by wax paper and refrigerate.

Makes about 1-1/2 pounds of fudge or 2 pounds with nuts.