When I was in primary school in the late 1980′s, I created my first recipe book. It was a “reporters notebook”, ringbound, with a model posing as a cowgirl on the cover (I cut it out of a magazine). It had an index, featuring basic recipes like meringues, cheese scones, pecan nut cookies and fudge – the recipes were all hand written, complete with hand drawn full colour pictures galore.
To my horror, I recently discovered that I had lost that recipe book. I wanted to make the featured recipe for fudge – a recipe that I had found on the wrapper of a Nestlé condensed milk can many years ago. I frantically searched for the book, but no luck. It must have fallen through the cracks of my very unorganised book shelves, or maybe somewhere in the garage, or upstairs where I recently tried to clean up some office space. The point is, I hope it is still somewhere in my house, temporarily hiding from me. I’ll hopefully find it when it is time to move house again in a few years.
Then I found the original Nestlé fudge recipe online, thank heavens. It was exactly as I remembered, simple and old fashioned. It had a quote at the top: “I have lost and found this recipe so many times I am finally committing it to Zaar. From Fair Lady, May 14, 1986″. It was the right one.
So here we go: I’m sharing this recipe as one of my all-time favourites. It is proper fudge, the real deal, melt-in-the-mouth. Save it!
Real Fudge Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 (385 g) can condensed milk
- 500 ml (2 cups) sugar
- 25 ml golden syrup
- 75 ml water
- 60 g butter
- 5 ml vanilla essence
Method:
- Put sugar and water into a large heavy saucepan. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Add the butter and syrup and stil until the butter has melted.
- Add the condensed milk and stir until it comes to the boil.
- Boil very slowly on low heat, stirring every minute or 2, until soft ball stage (the mixture will darken to a deep caramel colour and will start to form sugary crystals on the sides, sounding like sand when you scrape it).
- Remove from the stove, add the vanilla and beat it with a wooden spoon for 5-10 minutes until it starts to thicken (beating the fudge will ensure a great texture when completely cooled)
- Pour into a greased pan and leave to cool.
- Cut into squares when cold.
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