Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge – a delicious mistake !

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We all make mistakes. Hopefully, most of the time we learn from the experience, and we try not to make the same error again. However, sometimes a mistake is worth repeating.

I was aiming for smooth creamy fudge. Instead, I got crumbly Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge. In my book, ‘crumbly’ is not proper fudge. However, one of my taste testers - my lovely sister, Dee - sniffed out the jar of failed fudge I was saving to mix with ice cream and her reaction was: “Ommmfff! Mmmmmffffffff!  Ggggggggggnomnomnom.” – or words to that effect.

I think it must have been positive feedback because she agreed to taste-test the cheaty ice cream I made by mixing morsels of the fudge with softened vanilla ice cream and returning it to the freezer for days when I need a blood-sugar spike

For approximately 800g of slightly crumbly fudge you will need...

... a sugar thermometer  

500g caster sugar

150g condensed milk

150mls cold water

100g butter

½ teaspoon salt

100g smooth peanut butter

90g dark chocolate, broken into squares

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

 

I think I have a temperature...

 

1.      Place the first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat (I use a 2.5L pan for this amount). Melt together without stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved. Then turn up the heat to medium. The mixture needs to reach 238°F (soft ball) on the sugar thermometer, stirring occasionally to prevent the mixture ‘catching’ on the bottom of the pan and burning.  (Conventional fudge wisdom warns “DON’T STIR” ... as this can cause crystallisation... which leads to crumbly fudge. However, today I want crumbly fudge! )

2.      Once the soft ball stage has been reached, remove the pan from the heat. Without mixing them in, add the vanilla extract, peanut butter and chocolate. Leave the pan to cool for about 10 minutes and then beat (with a wooden spoon if you have lots of energy and elbow grease, or with electric beaters) until the mixture is very thick and loses its gloss.

4.      Transfer to a 20cm x 20cm tin, lined with cling film or parchment paper. Transfer to the fridge and leave to cool before cutting into squares.

Stored in an airtight container, or in the freezer, it will keep for up to 3 months and is outrageously good chopped into small pieces and stirred into good vanilla ice cream.

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