Cook With Us Week #8 - Guilty Pleasures - Rich & Creamy Fudge

Another week of awesome food gone by thanks to The Cook with Us team - @chefsteve , @pandamama and @offoodandart, who have given us two great themes with this week's Cook with Us #8 - Guilty Pleasure Food plus a bonus theme of Favorite Food from Your Country.

I've chosen Guilty Pleasure Food - my childhood favourite, rich and creamy Fudge.

When I was a little girl, my young aunt and uncle often made fudge in a deep pot over the stove. This was quite a lengthy process with much stirring and testing for the soft ball stage. Of course I was the one who did the testing and tasting, as I was too small to work with hot fudge, the butterscotch aromas enticing even my brothers who were always outside, playing rugby or cricket or cowboys & crooks, into the kitchen :):)

I quickly mastered the art of making fudge once I was big enough, and often made fudge for one and all; this was a great fund-raiser for church fetes, one of my favourite contributions.

Since the invention of the microwave oven, Fudge no longer takes 45 minutes to an hour on the stove top with constant stirring; it now is down to a mere 10 minutes cooking time.
Add another 10 minutes to complete the final process.

Hubby is a type one diabetic, so of course I feel real wicked making Fudge these days, as he dare not even have a tiny bite unless he's having a low sugar of course.

So I occasionally make Fudge these days, feeling very guilty when I hide it where hubby cannot find it, too much temptation, but I do share some with our Lily's Cottage guests.

Without further ado, let's get on to the howto.
The ingredients required to make 30 portions:

Ingredients

• 1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 cups Castor Sugar
• 125 gram Butter
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt

Place all ingredients into a deep glass bowl, microwave on high for one minute, remove from microwave and stir to dissolve all ingredients.

Cook another minute, remove and stir; notice it's already changing into a richer colour. Stir till butter has melted.

Return to microwave, and cook a further 8 minutes, but remove at one minute intervals and stir each time.

Fudge is now a nice rich light golden brown colour after cooking a total of ten minutes.
Note - if you prefer a darker brown and harder fudge, cook another minute or so, careful though as it can easily burn at this stage.

Test that fudge has reached soft ball stage by popping a little into a glass of cold water.
Fudge should stick together into a firm ball when squeezing with fingers.
Nice excuse to do a taste test :)

Add one teaspoon Vanilla Essence and beat till fudge becomes thick.
Pour into 21cm square buttered pan.

Top one half of fudge with crushed Peppermint Crisp Chocolate and Pecan Nuts to make a Minty Rocky Road Fudge.

Top the other half just with Pecan Nuts; a lovely creamy fudge with the nut breaking some of the sweetness.

Cut into squares when Fudge starts setting.

My Guilty Pleasures Rich & Creamy Fudge.

Nicely presented, some to be given away as little gifts, some to be stored in my secret hiding place!

Nothing beats having one of these at the end of a busy day, even better with a good book at bedtime :)

And I need another one :)

A quick look at the whole process, but please don't tell anyone about this guilty pleasure of mine!

Original Content by @lizelle
Thank you for stopping by, please comment, upvote and resteem if you enjoyed my post.
All images property of @lizelle

Team South Africa banner designed by @bearone