Flashes of Panic

Over the past weekend, I made four batches of fudge for various Christmas dinners, gifts, etc.. I mentioned this on Facebook and was asked for the recipe.

The recipe I use is Remarkable Fudge from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. (N.B. not every edition of the cook book has this recipe, but the recipe is available online if you look hard enough.)

I wrote up a pretty thorough run-through of making the fudge about two years ago. It’s all still true.

I don’t know the actual history but I’ve probably been doing this close to 20 years. I’ve certainly made more than fifty batches by now. I figured out the rough raw materials for this year’s four batches, and came up with:

• a bit less than ten pounds of sugar (16 cups)
• almost a half gallon of evaporated milk
• two pounds of butter
• a half gallon of marshmallow creme (Fluff, if you can get it)
• three pounds of various chocolate-esque chips (semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate, and peanut butter, this year)
• and a quarter cup of vanilla

I’m a little vague on the weight for the sugar because while I know I used 16 cups, I poured two five-pound bags into the canister in the course of work and may have wound up with more in the canister than I started with.