Oh Fudge!: A Celebration of America's Favorite Candy

This book is a great source of fudge recipes and techniques. Anyone who has made fudge knows that is is not the easiest of things to make—particularly if you don’t want to take shortcuts like adding fluffernutter. But, the bread and butter fudge recipe in this book is my GO TO. Now, I’m not going to lie, I have tweaked this recipe a bit over the years. For one thing, I add 1-2 tablespoons of white Karo (corn syrup) to help prevent graining. I also add a teaspoon of Turkish fine ground coffee, and I use two different chocolates instead of just one. But the basics of this recipe are dead on.A couple of other things I have noticed over the years with the bread and butter recipe—it’s important not to leave the cooling fudge in the cold water bath more than a few minutes. Because this recipe uses more butter and cream instead of milk, it’s got more fat in it, which means if you cool the fudge too quickly, it may start to separate. (If this happens, it is not the end of the world—your fudge will be a bit less creamy, but still very good).One another thing I’ll mention, only because another reviewer called it out: when you cool the fudge, don’t wait until 110 degrees F—that’s too cool, and the fudge will start to set. Instead, wait until it gets to 130-140F And, use an electric hand mixer—as long as you use Karo syrup, and don’t let the fudge cool too much, it won’t grain, even with an electric hand mixer, and your wrists/elbow will thank you. To be fair to the person who wrote this book, the “cool the fudge to 110F” is a common directive for fudge making—I believe the recipe on the Hershey cocoa can says the same (and it doesn’t work for the Hersheys fudge recipe either).Good luck and happy fudge making!

I love fudge and had a terrible time making it until I bought this book. I was one of those who thought it had to be beaten fast and burned up numerous electric mixers doing so. This book taught me that you just need to stir lazily, and even walk away and give it a rest now and then! The author details out 10 steps to make perfect fudge and you don't even need a thermometer.I bought some penuche (brown sugar fudge) at a local shop and it was relatively tasteless. Made some using the recipe from this book last week and the first time, did not pay attention to what the book says about how to test for soft ball stage and used thermometer only, so overcooked it, then overcooled it also so I could barely stir it. What I ended up with was an utterly delicious, tender, brown sugar caramel! However the next two batches came out PERFECTLY, a firm yet melt-in-your-mouth fudge, and I doubled the recipe the third time. The flavor is rich brown sugar with a touch of molasses, rivalling See's brown sugar centers.I have also made the marshmallow in this book and I agree with the author, once you've had homemade marshmallow you'll never want those tasteless, chewy storebought things again. I plan to lay the marshmallow cut to size on 1/4 graham crackers and dip them in dark chocolate for s'mores bars, they should rival the Charlotte's Confections ones!Definitely worth the money for all the foolproof fudge, nougat, caramel, divinity, and marshmallow recipes.

Could have been clearer on directions

I've had this book for several years and have given it away as gifts, too. The fudge (my favorite and standby is the 'bread and butter" recipe) is unbelievably good and THE best I've ever made or tasted. With that being said, I've still had flops occur that I cannot explain. Most frustrating is the fudge becoming grainy for no apparent reason. I thought I had narrowed down this problem to sugar: unless the bag says "pure cane sugar" it can have a mixture of beet sugar in it. Who knew? However, if you notice the date of my post (Christmas time) I've had yet another double batch turn grainy on me. Have no idea why, so I guess it's time to reread the book. I use a digital thermometer to keep a close eye on temperature, no to low humidity, fresh ingredients....Unlike other posts, I don't find fudge easy to make. I find it incredibly temperamental and sometimes (like today) hair-pulling frustrating. I seriously don't know how the author suffered through 300+ failures. It's why I don't blame the recipes of this book. When it's right, it's fantastic-can't-be-better. But there are MANY outside factors that can jack up a batch.....I'm still giving it a 5 star rating because even though I have maybe a 70% success rate (MUCH better than my fly-fishing record) when this candy comes out right, it is addictively delicious. When it fails, it's expensive as h#ll....oy.

The author is right on target with procedural instructions for successfully cooking fudge - even if you're cooking something other than the recipes provided.I couldn't find my well-worn original copy last Christmas, and immediately bought a second. Of course, about a month later found the original, and rather than lament having 2 copies, I'm glad to have a back-up!

the receiver uses it a lot

Disappointed that there were no pictures which, for me, helps to know that you're doing things right. Because of this I've relegated this book to the back of the bookcase - might be inspired to use it someday.