Oh, Fudge!

I know it's a couple months before Christmas, but I've been up to no good in the kitchen messing around with fudge recipes.

It all started when a coworker mentioned on Wastebook that it was National Fudge Day. Huh? OK, if you say so. Then naturally my mind does a Homer Simpson-esque 'Mmmmmmmmm. Fudge.' And I couldn't leave it alone.

Alton Brown's recipe seems to have the most chocolate (unsweetened, better yet) and the least sugar of all the recipes I checked. And I DON'T want a recipe that uses marshmallows.

I've made this a number of times before, but never have had the fail like yesterday morning. The glass or two of wine I had after work that inspired me to go ahead and make my dear coworkers fudge probably also contributed to me literally fudging it up. At several points along the way: Bringing it to a boil too soon, stirring/messing with it too much, not using accurate thermometers (or finding out how many degrees off they are by testing them with boiling water), not letting it get cool enough before adding the nuts and vanilla, and going too far with the stirring (Matte finish? How matte is matte supposed to be?) before putting it in the pan. I ended up with a seized up, dry, crumbly brown mass. I crammed it flat into the pan, and covered it with foil. Later that evening, I cut it into square-shaped chunks, and presented it to my coworkers. Bless them, there was not a single piece left by morning. Except for all the dry crumbs.

Today I bought more unsweetened chocolate and tried again. A little less wine and a lot more paying attention resulted in what is much closer to a proper pan of fudge. I let it cool down to 110F instead of 130F before starting to stir. It was softer and creamier. There were actually some pieces left when I went to collect the pan and go home. Maybe some people said 'Oh man, fudge again??'. But as my coworker Sue said, 'Feel free to keep right on screwing up...'