I’ve been making chocolate fudge for a few years, and it usually turns out pretty good. But every year I get a type of amnesia that makes me forget all of my fudge troubles from the previous year. So, despite it’s shortcomings, I’ve been with one fudge recipe, for better or for worse, for about 5 years. This year, however, I decided I wanted to see what other fudge recipes had to offer.
First, I turned to my trusty How to Cook Everything, the book to which I attribute all of my pie-making prowess. It offers a simple, traditional recipe with only a few ingredients (sugar, heavy cream, chocolate, vanilla) and alot of elbow grease (the final maneuver has you literally beating your fudge into submission). I’m not sure why, but this recipe felt like it was taking a realllllly long time to reach 235 degrees. And for that reason, I think I pulled it off the heat too soon. It was a little too gooey for my taste, and the heavy cream was a bit overwhelming. But it wasn’t inedible, or even bad.
Round 1: Draw.
Although I didn’t think my HTCE recipe was a complete failure, I was became a little jaded. And, as often happens after a rebound fling, I went back to my old faithful, forgetting all the ways this recipe had failed me in the past. First of all, I made the mistake of trying to make two batches of fudge at the same — and because of that, I got sloppy and let this one cook just enough past the softball stage to make a difference. But, aside from my user error, there are inherent flaws in this recipe, which are only now clear to me after having tested various other fudge recipes. It calls for twice as much butter as needed and nearly 2x more chocolate than necessary. The result is that it becomes crumbly & greasy. This time, those problems were all the more prominent thanks to my temperature flub up.
And the result is this rock hard, inedbile mess. Note even the Little Mister could get a knife through it. I let it sit out for a while, hoping the room temperature would loosen it up. But no luck. It’s like a giant brick of chocolate. And I mean giant. Because I was so blinded by my history with this recipe, I made a double batch. Ouch!
Round 2: Fudge – 2, Aut – 0
Not only do I need this fudge for gifts, but I not about to let any ordinary candy push me around. So, I took my new found candy-making intuition and made some modifications to Aunt Teen’s (not even remotely) Creamy Chocolate Fudge recipe. First I cut the butter in half. Nearly all fudge recipes call for 2 tablespoons of butter, this one called for 4 tbsp. And that’s just way too much. All it did was leave a gooey greasy pool on the top of my fudge. The worst part is when the fudge would set, that pool would congeal. NASTY!! 
(Don’t ask me how I forgot about this year after year. I just don’t know.) Next, I cut the chocolate by about half, down from 3 cups of chocolate chips, to about 1-3/4 cups. It probably could have taken up to 2 or 2-1/4 cups of chips without getting too thick, but again 3 cups was just way too much. The result is a smooth, rich chocolatey fudge.
Round 3: Fudge – 0, Aut – 1
Since I needed another batch of chocolate, and I thought I owed it to myself to keep playing the fudge field, I tried a fudge recipe nearly identical to the modified recipe I made above, except the marshmallow didn’t get added until after mixture reached softball stage. (You’ll also notice this one calls for butterscotch chips. I skipped those and went with 1-1/2 c. of dark chocolate.) 
Like the peanut butter, this made for a slightly softer, creamier texture, with a little less emphasis on the chocolate than the last fudge. This is probably my favorite chocolate fudge yet.
Round 4: Fudge – 0, Aut – 1
So, although the numbers would seem to show a draw between me & the fudge, I’m giving myself a few extra points for trying out two brand new chocolate fudge recipes (1 pt), modifying an old one (1 pt), and finally breaking off a bad fudge relationship (1,000,000 pts). So the finally tally…
Fudge – 2, Aut – 1,000,004
Take that, Fudge! Who’s your daddy now, huh?!?
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