Fudge - the food wallflower
Is it time for fudge to make a comeback? It seems out of favor
There is designer ice cream, cookies, truffles, chocolates, cupcakes, frozen yogurt, donuts, etc .. but why has the parade passed fudge?
People are even selling frosting shots.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/541104
Yet fudge seems to get no attention, love or respect. Is fudge any worse for you than most of the above?
Fudge doesn't melt like ice cream or frozen yogurt. It doesn't go stale as quickly as cupcakes or donuts while being sturdier and less prone to crushing.
While this site has 150 flavors, it doesn't really break new ground, just adds to the existing, expected flavor palate. Has anyone tried Fun Flavored Fudge?
http://www.funflavoredfudge.com/Fun%20Flavors.htm
A few of the more interesting flavors ...
- Dr. Pepper
- Elvis (A layer of Peanut Butter Fudge & a layer of Banana Fudge)
- Garden Delight (Chocolate fudge, chocolate cookie crumbles & gummi worms)
- Gingerbread
- Carrot Cake
- Margarita
- Champagne
- Dark Chocolate Mango Cheesecake
- Watermelon
This place has some pepper-flavored fudge ... red chili or jalapeno
http://www.thecandylady.com/index.php?cPath=1&osCsid=cb12a1571877e26706f8b317d57077a9
Scottish whiskey and ginger fudge?
http://www.rolysfudge.co.uk/catalog/products_new.html?disp_order=2
Where is the bacon fudge?
http://www.theanticraft.com/archive/b...
If there is olive oil ice cream ... why not fudge?
No vegetable inspirations like perhaps beet fudge or sweet pea fudge? Why do places like French Laundry or El Bulli not grace their meals some creative fudge? We are not afraid of foam but fear fudge?
I blame this on all those Fudge Factory type of joints that turned fudge into a flavorless, waste of calories relegated to tourist locations next to the salt water taffy ... and hey ... what about a salt water taffy revival?
Who makes good fudge ... interesting fudge ... quality fudge .. the stuff that is so good you want to spackle your ateries with it?
By rworange
on Jul 22, 2008 12:55 AM
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Fudge hasn't fallen out of favor with anyone I know...I make it according to my grandma's recipe (in five pound batches), and it's gone in three days, max. I can say from experience that making fudge is a delicate process. One wrong move, and you've either got a grainy brick or something that resembles melting frosting (which is actually still rather tasty, but not very attractive). It's rather tedious to make, and takes a while to set. This may be why it's not practical for restaurants. But hey, I agree with you...it would be great if there were more places to get decent fudge without having to make it myself.
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A few fudge recipes and ideas I came across in my searching
Fascinating Fudge - rethinking it
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/541275
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Would you be willing to post your recipe on the homecooking board ? I'm always looking for a good oldfashioned fudge. Particularly Peanut butter. Thanks !
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I have yet to taste any flavor of fudge that I didn't find to be too sweet.
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That's the reason I don't like fudge, too. And I have a sweet tooth.
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cavandre, I agree. Interesting, since I love truffles. What then is the difference?
I've never ever found fudge in a fudge 'place', usually in a tourist town, to be anything other than disgusting.
I've made the condensed milk fudge and it's okay, but it's no truffle. And I'm talking the homemade hardened ganache truffle, so the truffle doesn't even have to be screamingly expensive.
I wonder if fudge knows that it's truffle's poorer relative and doesn't even bother to try?
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Poorer relative indeed ... and as a result gets poorer ingrediants.
Instead of cream, there's evaporated milk. The poor quality nuts, the artificial vanilla, poor quality butter ... and corn syrup instead of sugar. That is why all that tourist fudge is so disgusting.
Yes, a zillion flavors, that have that artificial taste of strawberry Nestle Quik.
Quality chocolate in fudge like in truffles ... I think not ... quality chocolate in fudge means Hershey's cocoa or Nestles chocolate chips ... at best.
Yet ... I remember fudge ... good fudge ... that buttery delicious wonder with a texture that can be amazing ... and not easy to achieve.
Fudging the quality of what goes in doesn't work.
This recipe from a kid's science museum has mainly the right ingrediants and why. I would argue about that touch of corn syrup ... and even then they explain how it must be added at exactly the right time.
However, maybe it is because, as the link mentions, fudge started as a mistake ... a batch of caramels gone wrong ... that it will never get any serious attention.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/...
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Fudge and truffles are pretty distant relatives. Yes, both contain chocolate, but truffles are essentially an emulsion of chocolate, cream, and maybe some butter or liqueur, sugar optional. Fudge is a crystalline sugar confection that contains some chocolate, fat, and milk solids, but its really mostly sugar. Because the structure of the candy is based on the way sugar crystallizes, you can't add enough chocolate to make a not-sweet fudge, as the extra fats and solids would interfere with the crystallization (as I understand it).
If you crave chocolate, have a truffle. If you crave sugar, have some fudge.
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Agree, babette feasts. I fear candy thermometers, and have therefore never made a good authentic fudge. I've resorted to the condensed milk or (horrors) marshmallow creme recipe.
I'm surprised scientists haven't come up with a foolproof 'from scratch' fudge for the 21st century.
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A few months ago, after rediscovering a long-bookmarked link, I made Snickers-like fudge. It was good, but I made a few changes and made another big batch of the stuff -- people around me were very happy lol.
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Wow. Is that a four layered fudge, Chocolatechipkt?
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Yep, sure is. :)
http://areyouhungryyet.blogspot.com/2...
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Wow again. I can't believe in all my online foodie travels that I've never seen this one. Have to make it reallllly soon, it looks amazing. Thanks chocolatechipkt.
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You are evil! LOL! What a temptation. I love snickers so this would be a great treat. Does it matter what kind of peanuts you use? Cocktail, dry roasted, spanish . . . ?
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A good evil, hehehe ... at least this recipe makes a lot, so you can share with lots of people (and still have some for yourself). I used lightly salted dry roasted peanuts (like the boiled kind from Williamsburg) -- just go with what you like to eat, I think. The original recipe I saw didn't specify, if I remember correctly, but I wanted lots of peanuty flavor.
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Wow! That looks amazing! I clicked on the picture and I'm salivating lol! Thanks KT I've bookmarked it so I can make it to take to the Food Bank for the other volunteers(and so there isn't a bunch of it left in the house for me to inhale). Good thing(for my diet) there's no fluff in the house or I'd be making it right this minute :)
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Thanks! Report back if you make this. :)
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Saw this in the NYT this morning:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/23/din...
I'm not a big fan of fudge - too sweet, too often grainy - but the cinnamon almond sounds interesting.
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...or wasabi pecan
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The only fudge I have ever really enjoyed I get at Holiday World, an amusement park not far from my family's home in IN. I typically don't even bother trying it otherwise as I know I will make it to the amusement park at least every couple of years. I'd be curious to know if any of these online places are any good.
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Watermelon fudge??? That doesn't sound very appealing, to me anyway. But that bacon fudge . . . hmm!
A well made fudge is a treasure. My favorite is peanut butter fudge, but give me a good chocolate with nuts and I'm happy, too. But a little goes a long way. I stopped making it unless I was going to share, or give as gifts, because it is just too rich. I can only eat a tiny square every few days. There is a place in Galveston that has a peanut butter fudge that is very good but I only get a couple pieces, eat one on the spot, and take one home.
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Fudge is OK, I guess, but there are so many better sweets to spend my calories on.
It seems a rather old-fashioned food. Back when there was not much choice in sweets--a peppermint stick? taffy? marrons glacés?--fudge no doubt held more allure.
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Fudge that is TOO smooth or creamy has always seemed just wrong to me, probably because my mom's was always a bit grainy. She'd have nothing to do with marshmallows in there, and the only nuts she'd ever use were freshly-shelled English walnuts or pecans. I will admit that my favorite dimestore bulk candy for a long time was that gross Brazil nut fudge, but that was before I discovered Maple Nut Goodies. All of which things I've apparently outgrown; it's been an awfully long time since I last craved any sort of candy, though if you handed me a small piece of fudge I'd know what to do with it.
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