Chocolate Fudge

I don’t make fudge all that often, but this recipe from an old Julie Le Clerc magazine caught my eye a while ago. It is almost like chocolate Russian fudge. The recipe uses chocolate flavoured condensed milk which I am not even sure you can still get – I havent seen it in the shops for ages. I used ordinary condensed milk and added 1 ½ tbsp of cocoa to half a tin of condensed milk.

The trick to good fudge is to stir over a low heat constantly until all the sugar dissolves. This can take a very long time, but it is so worth it as it pretty much ensures that your fudge wont be grainy. Once the sugar in this fudge dissolved I found it didn’t take long to come to soft ball temperature. I used a candy thermometer to test, but I also did the true test of dropping a bit into cold water to make sure it makes a pliable ball. I found this fudge to be creamy and delicious and definitely worth making.

Last night for dinner we had free range boneless chicken thighs which I stuffed with chopped olives, wrapped in bacon and roasted. We had them with roast kumara and a mesclun salad with avocado and roasted almonds. I made my favourite dressing for the salad – ¾ tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tbsp raspberry vinegar, 2 tbsp good olive oil and a pinch of salt, combined. I find that these quantities make enough to coat a salad for four. If you don’t have raspberry vinegar you could use red wine vinegar, or even lemon juice, but if you use lemon juice I suggest adding either a little sugar or about ½ a tsp of honey as the lemon juice can be quite tart.

Chocolate Fudge (adapted from Julie Le Clerc recipe)

60g butter
1 ¾ c brown sugar
50g dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp golden syrup
¼ c milk
200g condensed milk
1 ½ tbsp cocoa
½ tsp vanilla

• Place all ingredients other than the vanilla in a heavy based med- large saucepan
• Warm over a gentle heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved
• Increase the heat, bring to the boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally until the mixture reaches soft ball stage (either use a candy thermometer or test by dropping a small bit of mixture into cold water – it will form a pliable ball if at the right stage)
• Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla, then beat with electric beaters until thick and creamy
• Pour into a lined loaf tin and leave to set

NB. The above recipe is for a half recipe. If you double all of the above ingredients, use a 20cm square tin