For someone who has “quit sugar” the desire for sweetness is rare these days. Last night though, I had a strong idea that Russian Fudge was what I was hankering for. At least this type of sweet craving means I need to get up, create the food, wait for it to cool before getting to eat it. Is that slightly better than just buying a block of chocolate and over eating that? Probably not in the scheme of the Universe but at the micro-level of the distance between my couch and the stove it seemed to count for a lot.
I Googled for a Russian Fudge recipe and landed on Chelsea Sugar’s version. The butter was already melting into the mountain of sugar in the saucepan before I realised there wasn’t any Golden Syrup in the pantry. Another side effect of the low-to-no sugar lifestyle means sweet staples aren’t replaced as they run out. What to do, what to do?
So this is how I changed the recipe to still statisfy my craving and it turned out great. If you try it, I hope it works great for you too.
NOTE: Don’t rush, no kids around, be prepared - sugar melts at a high temperature and burns human skin with ferocity. Use all the Cautions and Carefuls.
Equipment:
- Candy themometer
- 1 tsp vanilla paste (add before beating)
- 20cm square cake tin
- Electric hand beater
Ingredients:
- 3.5 cups sugar
- 123 g butter
- 0.5 cup milk
- 100 g Condensed Milk
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 0.5 tsp salt
Steps:
- Grease cake tin with butter.
- Grind a light-medium sprinkle of salt into the bottom of the cake tin.
- Put a heavy bottomed saucepan on a medium heat.
- Add and melt together the sugar, butter, milk, maple syrup, brown sugar, and salt to the saucepan.
- Gently bring to the boil and add candy thermometre.
- Stir continuously until the thermometer reads 120 degrees Celcius - the soft ball stage.
- Remove from heat and transfer saucepan to heat proof surface (wooden chopping board is best)
- Leave for five minutes to cool down slightly before stirring in the vanilla.
- Using the electric hand beater, mix until mixture looks creamy and thick and has lost some of its gloss.
- Pour into prepared cake tin and leave on chopping board to slowly cool.
Associated Links:
- Russian Fudge recipe (Chelsea Sugar)
- Testing for soft ball stage (youtube)
- The cold water candy test (Exploratorium)
- What is fudge, anyway? (Wikipedia)
- Condensed Milk (Wikipedia)