Use Real Butter for Making Best Fudge (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to good fudge? ›

Use unsalted butter so you can add a small amount of salt (¼ teaspoon per stick of butter) to the sugar/liquid mixture. Salt tends to stabilize the mixture and keep it from foaming as much.

When making fudge, be sure to use good quality butter and do not substitute margarine. Margarine contains more water and can prevent the fudge from setting up properly. Also, be sure to use the quantity called for in the recipe, too much may prevent it from firming up properly.

Once a seed crystal forms, it grows bigger and bigger as the fudge cools. A lot of big crystals in fudge makes it grainy. By letting the fudge cool without stirring, you avoid creating seed crystals.

Avoid Stirring Once the Mixture Comes to a Simmer

Another key part of a successful fudge texture is when you stir the mixture. Stirring the sugar and milk during the initial stages of cooking allows the sugar to dissolve. However, once the mixture comes to a boil, it's time to put the spoon down.

Stir the ingredients to dissolve the sugar until the mixture comes to a boil. If your recipe uses milk, stirring will keep the mixture from curdling. But once it reaches about 236–238 degrees F/113–114 degrees C (the "soft-ball" stage), do not stir it or even shake the pan.

Next, if you're swapping unsalted for salted butter, reduce the amount of salt listed in the recipe to adjust for the salt in the butter. Take ¼ teaspoon of salt away for every stick of butter used*. Do the opposite if you're swapping salted for unsalted butter.

If the butter gets too hot, it can separate, causing the fudge to become oily on top. This is easy to prevent by monitoring the temperature with a candy thermometer, but separated fudge can also be fixed. To fix oily, hard or grainy fudge, scoop the fudge back into a pot with about a cup of water.

This helps create more consistent results for home bakers replicating a recipe. In general, salted butter is preferred for cooking (or simply spreading) as it adds more flavour and has a longer shelf life, while unsalted butter is the go-to for baking.

Fortunately, fixing the issue is fairly simple. Put the greasy mix back into a pot, add a few tablespoons of water, and stir the fudge on a low heat. Once this new mixture is complete, rebake the fudge.

Why is there butter in fudge? ›

Butter is an essential ingredient of fudge, hence the term butter fudge, a kind of confection made by boiling sugar, butter and milk together so the sugar is partially caramelised, then beating the mixture as it cools to prevent large crystals from forming so as to obtain a soft consistency.

How can you fix soft fudge? Put it in a microwave safe bowl that is large enough that it won't boil over. Reheat it to the boiling point and cook for about 3 more minutes. Then you can beat some powdered sugar into it if this doesn't make it set.

The main reason is that your Fudge has not reached the optimum temperature. If your mixture only reaches 110 or 112 degrees Celsius it will always be soft. That's why we recommend investing in a sugar thermometer.

Unsalted butter—or oil, or lard (we'll get there)—is the key to baking with weed because of its high fat content, says Miguel Trinidad, chef and owner of New York's Jeepney Filipino Gastropub and 99th Floor, a cannabis supper club.

Baking recipes typically call for unsalted butter because the amount of salt in salted butter varies depending on the brand – there is no “industry standard.” For example, if you use one brand of salted butter in a recipe, and we use another, our baked goods could end up tasting very different from one other.

Unsalted butter gives you complete control of the overall flavor of your recipe. This is especially important in certain baked goods where the pure, sweet cream flavor of butter is key (butter cookies or pound cakes). As it pertains to cooking, unsalted butter lets the real, natural flavor of your foods come through.

Salted butter has a richer dairy taste, almost like cultured butter, so it will enhance the taste of the cocoa. You can also use unsalted butter, and in that case you should double the amount of added salt. Granulated sugar - simple fine white granulated sugar keeps these brownies moist.