Please fave and comment on the original submission: click here

Please Note: Recipes for the photographed fudge platter will be supplied later or you may access them via  starallon's userpage

Fantastic Fudge and helpful information from the kitchens of  starallon

******************************

This photo is from a platter brought to the Jaxfurs Holiday party during the holidays (Or maybe was from the one I brought to my work for the holiday party... regardless..) and the front and center there is peanut butter fudge, which never actually got a photoshoot of it's own! Bad me, poor PB fudge, though to make it just take the nutella fudge recipe ( http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7658790 ) and sub out natural PB for the Nutella.


Now that I've gone and shared four different fudge recipes how about we talk just a little about fudge?

As the previous recipes have shown it's very flexible in how you flavor it. You can make a variety of flavors easily by subbing out just a couple of things at most.

If you are someone who has lactose intolerance you can sub into it Soy-milk as well, though you'll want to add about a half cup more of the milk and you'll find it has to cook probably twice as long until it reaches around 240. Why? Well, because Evaporated milk has had a portion of it's water removed. Water itself boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, thus becoming steam and as such the water in the milk won't let the liquid go beyond 212 degrees until all the water has been evaporated.

Which is also why things with a lot of water in them are much less likely to burn too, a fact you can use advantageously in some recipes... but that's for other experiments.

Margarine works excellent for making fudge as well, and while I personally don't care much for the taste by itself it is handy in cooking things like fudge. Originally when I was first doing fudge way back I always used margarine as it always worked well, and butter would sometimes be more brittle. At the time I didn't know as much how temperature worked in the candy and monitoring it, now that I do I can always get away with butter without a problem. Margarine is also a good cost cutter if you need to cut a little cost to making it (Fudge is not a cheap sweet to make and butter is expensive. )

Fudge keeps nicely and kept in an airtight container with wax paper you can expect possibly a month of longevity out of it, possibly longer. The large amount of sugar in the fudgey environment tends to be hostile to most bacteria (Thus why some things are sugar cured out there.) Sure, sugar can promote bacterial growth but in large amounts it deprives bacteria of moisture that it needs to live and thus provides a bad place for growth.

Fudge is as gluten free as the ingredients you put into it! (Always check your chocolate and PB and such for whether it is gluten free or not as it's the main potential for gluten problems.)

Mix stuff in at the end! Fudge takes well to all sorts of nuts, and you can even add in toffee bits or dried fruits chopped up finely.

Like mint? Sub out the vanilla with a few teaspoons of mint extract!

Want to go for ultimate almond fudge? Use Almond butter and top with toasted almond slices!

Setting up a candy platter for guests? Fudge is very sweet so cut it into small pieces, good for single bites (Though I totally don't listen to this rule often...) and you can use it to mark off edges, use it as a divider between different sweets too.

Fudge is, tasty!

Okay, I've rambled enough on it. New things to come for sure as we move from fudge to other tasty treats!

If anyone wants like a really high-res version of this photo to make into a background or some such let me know in a note and I can provide a bigger version.

If you have any questions, please ask.

******************************

Please fave and comment on the original submission: click here

Allergy warning – recipe contains nut, dairy & egg products