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Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge

By: Rosemary Published: Updated on: December 27, 2022

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Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge, this is the best, creamiest chocolate fudge, made the old fashioned way! And only 6 ingredients. The perfect Homemade Chocolate Candy, one everyone will love.

Fudge pieces on parchment paper.

I have been a big Candy lover for a long time, especially anything Chocolate such as these Easy Homemade Filled Chocolates or these Italian Chocolate Kisses / Baci.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge is everything a homemade fudge should be, so get your candy thermometer ready.

I have been searching and searching for the chocolate fudge that I had tasted when I was about 8 or 10 years old, if you can believe that! This fudge melted in your mouth and was just a little bit crumbly.

I can remember going to the Christmas Bazaar at the Church on Saturday afternoon with a couple of my school friends. I bought my dime bag of chocolate fudge and I still remember thinking “this is the best Fudge I have ever eaten”.

And when we went back to get another bag, the lady was sold out. A sad day for me!

I think in my quest for “the One”  I tasted fudge from any and all chocolate stores. And unfortunately they were all the creamy types usually made with sweetened condensed milk, just like my Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge or this Easy Walnut Fudge I wanted that crumbly melt in your mouth fudge!

Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I decided I would google until I discovered my Chocolate Fudge. And discover I did, thanks to Hershey’s, apparently it is their Recipe that gives you that divine fudge.

fudge leaning against another.

Recipe Ingredients

  • Sugar – granulated
  • Cocoa powder – unsweetened dutch processed
  • Salt
  • Milk – whole/heavy milk
  • Butter – I use salted – room temperature

How to make Chocolate Fudge

Line an 8 inch square pan with buttered parchment paper.

In a medium heavy saucepan stir together the sugar, cocoa and salt, then add the milk and stir with a wooden spoon (not a whisk or metal spoon).

Cook over medium heat stirring continuously until mixture starts to boil (a strong boil), approximately 15 minutes.

Turn heat to low medium and continue to cook without stirring until temperature reaches 234 °F (112C)  Approximately 30 minutes.

2 photos of making chocolate fudge, the mixture before boiled and when boiling

Remove pot from the heat, add the butter and vanilla. Do not stir. Cool to room temperature (110°F/43C), approximately 30 minutes. Then beat with a wooden spoon just until mixture begins to lose some of it’s gloss (approximately 6-8 minutes).

Spread the fudge quickly in the prepared pan and let cool completely, even overnight (at room temperature). Cut it into squares.

Adjusting the Fudge Recipe for High Altitude

To adjust the temperature to your altitude, deduct two degrees from the temperature required for every one thousand feet of altitude above sea level. For example, in this Fudge recipe, if you live 5,000 feet above sea level, you would deduct 10 degrees from 234 degrees.

How to Store Homemade Chocolate Fudge

Wrap the cut pieces in parchment paper or aluminum foil and store in an airtight container or sealable plastic bag. Fudged stored at room temperature can last from 7 – 14 days.

Fudge can also be stored in the refrigerator wrapped and placed in an airtight container. In the fridge fudge will last 2 – 3 weeks.

How to freeze it

Freeze the fudge in a double bag, well wrapped. You can freeze it either in pieces or the whole slab. Fudge will keep for up to 3 months in the freezer.

pieces of chocolate fudge.

What to make with fudge

If by chance you have some leftover fudge or for some reason your fudge doesn’t turn out, don’t despair and certainly don’t throw it out! Cut up some fudge add it to some hot milk and stir until smooth and there you have some amazing hot chocolate, maybe the best you have ever had?

Or melt some of the fudge, either in the microwave or over a pot of boiling water and drizzle it over some ice cream or as a ganache on a cake. Hot fudge sauce never tasted so good.

Can I add Nuts or Peanut Butter

Yes you can add nuts such as walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, peanut butter or even mini marshmallows. The best time to add these ingredients is when you add the butter and vanilla. I would also recommend roasting the nuts first to give the best flavor to your fudge.

You could also substitute the vanilla extract with peppermint extract or almond or even orange.

How to roast nuts

Place nuts in a single layer on an ungreased baking / cookie sheet. Bake in a pre-heated 350F/180C oven for 5 to 8 minutes or until they are golden brown, remove immediately from the pan to a clean bowl to cool.

Candy on parchment paper.

How to keep your fudge from being gritty or grainy

  • Make sure the sugar has dissolved.
  • It could be the fudge wasn’t beaten long enough or hard enough.

Does the weather affect fudge?

Yes it does, on a humid day, once the candy has cooled it may start to absorb moisture from the air, so on a humid day the candy will end up being softer than it is suppose to be.

Therefore it is always better to make candy (fudge) on dry days. Although if you have no choice but to make candy on a humid day then cook it to the highest recommended temperature (which is 237-240F).

Cool weather also helps the candy cool faster that way it has a lesser chance to form the dreaded crystals. 

Why is my fudge soft?

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Most of the time the reason is because your fudge has not reached the right temperature, it is very important to use a good candy thermometer for this.

I hope you enjoy this Homemade Chocolate Fudge! And let me know how you like it. Enjoy!

A piece of chocolate fudge.

More Chocolate Candy Recipes

A piece of chocolate fudge.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge

Rosemary Molloy
Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge, creamy and slightly crumbly this melt in your mouth homemade fudge is the best. 
4.81 from 259 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Cooling Time 8 hours
Total Time 9 hours 15 minutes
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 20 pieces
Calories 154 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened dutch processed)
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 1/4 cup butter* (I use salted) (room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

*if you use unsalted butter then increase the salt to 1/4 teaspoon.

    Instructions
     

    • Line an 8 inch square pan with buttered parchment paper.
    • In a medium heavy saucepan stir together sugar, cocoa and salt, then add the milk and stir with a wooden spoon (not a whisk or metal spoon).
    • Cook over medium heat stirring continuously until mixture starts to boil (a strong boil), approximately 15 minutes.
    • Turn heat to low medium and continue to cook without stirring until temperature reaches 234 °F (112C)  Approximately 30 minutes.
    • Remove pot from heat, add the butter and vanilla.  Do not stir.  Cool to room temperature (110°F/43C), approximately 30 minutes.  Then beat with a wooden spoon just until mixture begins to lose some of it's gloss (approximately 6-8 minutes).
    • Then spread quickly in prepared cake pan and let cool completely, even overnight (at room temperature).   Cut into squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
    • You can also freeze the fudge in a double bag, well wrapped.  Freeze either in pieces or the whole slab.  Can be frozen up to 3 months.  Keeps in an airtight container for approximately 2 weeks or in the fridge for 3-4 weeks.  Enjoy!

    Notes

    To store the fudge, wrap the cut pieces in parchment paper and store in an airtight container or sealable plastic bag. Fudged stored at room temperature can last from 7 – 14 days.
    Fudge can also be stored in the refrigerator wrapped and placed in an airtight container. In the fridge fudge will last 2 – 3 weeks.
    To freeze it – freeze the fudge in a double bag, well wrapped.  Freeze either in pieces or the whole slab.  It can be frozen for up to 3 months. 
    For High Altitude – to adjust the temperature to your altitude, deduct two degrees from the temperature required for every one thousand feet of altitude above sea level. For example, in the recipe that follows, if you live 5,000 feet above sea level, you would deduct 10 degrees from 234 degrees. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-01-28-8803260034-story.html 
    Helpful tips
    “Rub the sides of the sauce pan you’ll be using with butter. Apparently if one grain of uncooked sugar gets in with the sugar mixture, it will turn the cooked sugar back into grandular sugar, and make it grainy again. The butter will melt as the pan gets hot, causing the sugar to slide into the pan. I’ve used butter to rub the sides of my pan for years. Also never scrape the sides of your pan while cooking. This really works. The fudge comes out as a very smooth texture”.  Rhonda
    “Absolutely loved making this. I doubled the batch and the temp took a little over an hour to get there. Adjusting the temp to almost a medium on our ultra heat burner. Then I placed my pot by a cracked window to allow the cold air to help cool it down to 110. When it’s only 9° out this helped! Added almond slices and coconut flakes”. – Krista
    “I use to always use this Hershey recipe, but it’s has been years since I’ve made fudge. Tried a batch this weekend and it reminded me of how I used to fix the fails I’ve been reading about. If the fudge never sets or turns to concrete in a pan, do not despair. If too soft, heat it up again to temp (234 F for Hershey recipe – if too soft your thermometer was probably off). If it was too hard add a little milk as it melts, I cook just until melted. Remove from heat, add a pat of butter on top and let cool and beat as before. I used to call it my special twice cooked fudge recipe”. Gustavo
    Keyword chocolate fudge, fudge, homemade fudge, old fashioned fudge

    Updated from November 18, 2017.

    Comments

    2. Felicity Paige says

      To prevent gritty crystals forming the recipe I learnt also had 1/8th teaspoon of Cream of Tartar added. Worked every time. Learned this recipe over 50 years ago from my High Shool cookbook.
      Way better than the condensed milk version the had to be kept refridgerated, and always popular t school fetes when my children were young.

      • Brenda says

        I tried this recipe today and my fudge did not set up. It did not thicken at all. I still have it sitting out to se if it will. I was surprised that this recipe didn’t call for marshmallow fluff to thicken it.

    3. Nicole says

      Hello Rosemary!
      Thank you for this old fashioned version. I am excited to try it out.
      I was planning to make a few different flavors this year for holiday baskets. Would you say “additions” are fairly simple modifications? Like if I want to make a mint chocolate, would I just sub mint extract for vanilla or keep vanilla and add mint alongside?
      Thanks!

    5. Lynda DeLuca says

      5 stars
      I made this a second time, only this time i added 1 tbsp – “espresso”. This recipe is just so good and chocolately. And pretty quick to make too. Thank you so much Rosemary, for a such a very good, chocolately, quick, and easy recipe for us.

    6. Linda says

      Yes!!! A kindred fudge spirit! This is the kind of fudge that my mom used to make from a vintage cookbook of that time (or or it might have been the Hershey’s cocoa tin). Then fudge recipes went all easy and foolproof and used stuff like condensed milk, corn syrup, or (shudder) marshmellow creme. Yes, they’re easier to make, but they just don’t taste the same. So happy that you’re spreading the word about the old fashioned type. It’s so good!

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