Mama Weber's Fudge (29/325)

Barbara Gassmann's Wedding

The Relation

Barbara Gassmann Harris is the fourth daughter of Gertie and Zean. She would be my great-aunt and was allegedly a very classy lady. I, personally, absolutely love this photo Mary Pat Gassmann (Gert>Henry) found of Barbara on her wedding day. In a lot of these pictures, people seem to be a little stuff, but her smile in this photo is genuinely radiant. The wedding was held at the Presidio of San Francisco.

Slow Boil

The Process

I have never made fudge before (I should really keep track of all these culinary cherries I keep popping) so this was bound to be an adventure. Especially with the anecdote about it never failing... which made me ask myself, is making fudge hard?

First of all, I don't what type of mutant walnuts were growing back in the day, but I would love to see a walnut the size of a 1/3 stick of butter! That seems massive. I melted the mutant walnut-size butter piece per the instructions and added all the other good stuff.

Stir to stiff??

I want to put out there that I followed this recipe pretty carefully. I added the squares of chocolate and boiled for 5 minutes and took it off the stove right at 5 on the dot. I added a half cup of pecans (now a staple in my house since starting this project) and the vanilla. I stirred until it was stiff, and poured into a buttered pan.

Half an hour goes by, and it's still pretty liquidy. Another hour goes by, and the viscosity has not changed. I tossed it in the fridge at this point thinking maybe it needed to chill? I left it overnight and by morning, it seemed to retain its shape! But... something was amiss.

Pre-chill

The Feedback

Overall, not bad. I think I messed up somewhere. Maybe, I should have used an electric mixer to beat the mixture after cooking? I really only stirred it, there wasn't a whole lot of "beating" going on. It tasted like fudge! Sweet and chocolatey and all that. The texture though... it wasn't creamy or smooth like fudge should be. It was grainy. On top of that, the nuts had gotten soggy and soft overnight. My climbing friends said it was still good, which it was! But I am unsatisfied with the texture.

The Receipt

MAMA WEBER’S FUDGE - CC80
Barbara Gassmann Harris+

Melt butter the size of a walnut – ⅓ stick.

Add 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, ¾ cup cream or half and half, ¼ cup Karo and a pinch of salt.

Let come to a boil slowly. Boil one minute. Add 2 squares of Baker’s chocolate. Boil 5 minutes after chocolate melts, stirring constantly. Take from fire. Add teaspoon vanilla and ½ cup chopped nuts. Beat until stiff. Pour into buttered pan.

Never fails – even when it’s raining.