FUDGE - food of the angels

On a recent short break in Edinburgh, I accidentally found myself in The Fudge House on the Royal Mile. They sell their stuff in small bars, and I very nobly restricted myself to four different flavours. Best was white chocolate pistachio, then chocolate pecan, followed by lemon meringue and caramel.
          So how to amuse myself back at home? Having tweeted about fudge, had to put my money (and fudge) where my mouth is and make some, photograph it and blog about it before tucking in. Very sadly, the OM is not a fan of fudge, so .....
          The recipe here is one I have been using for many years, sometimes with various additions. The process takes only about 25 minutes, not including a little setting time. The fudge pictured had 40g of melted plain chocolate swirled through just before pouring into the tin, but there are plenty of other ways of making it different. And it makes a very fine gift.
          These quantities make around 450g, and would cut into maybe 30 pieces. At The Fudge House they charge (if I recall) about £2.65 per 100g, so this quantity would cost nearly £12. Making it costs only a fraction of this.

Vanilla Fudge

A fairly heavy medium-sized saucepan is needed, a wooden spoon, and a tin lined with parchment (you could just grease it but parchment is more certain). I use a 17cm square shallow baking tin. A sugar thermometer is the surest way to get the boiling time right.



Ingredients
55g butter
2 tbsp water
1 rounded tbsp golden syrup
280g sugar (preferably caster as it dissolves more quickly than granulated)
125ml condensed milk (e.g. from a squeezy tube)
1 tsp vanilla extract (otherwise use essence)

Method
1  Put the butter, water, syrup and sugar in the pan and heat gently, stirring occasionally,
          until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
2  Stir in the condensed milk and bring to the boil.
3  Boil, watching carefully and stirring occasionally, until 116C (or 240F) is reached. This
          takes about 6-8 minutes.
4  Immediately remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 4 minutes.
5  Add the essence and beat vigorously with the wooden spoon until the mixture becomes
          grainy.
6  Pour quickly into the lined tin and smooth over.
7  After another minute or two, mark into squares and leave to cool completely.

As well as the chocolate swirl mentioned above, other additions might included wiped quartered glace cherries, chopped pecans or pistachios, halved fresh raspberries, or 2 teaspoons of coffee essence (Camp coffee is still around and works well) perhaps with a few chopped walnuts.