Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge
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.
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.
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 a 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. Turn heat to low medium and continue to cook without stirring until the correct temperature is reached.
Remove the pot from the heat, add the butter and vanilla. Do not stir. Cool to room temperature. Then beat with a wooden spoon just until mixture begins to lose some of it’s gloss.Spread the fudge quickly in the prepared baking dish 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.
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.
Fudge makes a wonderful gift idea. Wrap it with some transparent wrapping and tie with a bow, or place on a decorative plate or how about place a stick in the middle and make fudge pops!
Can I add Nuts or Peanut Butter
Yes you can add nuts such as walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios, peanut butter, mini marshmallows, dried cranberries or even broken candy canes. 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.
If you prefer peppermint fudge then substitute the vanilla extract with peppermint extract or even almond or 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.
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 supposed to be.
Therefore it is always better to make candy (fudge) on dry sunny days. Although if you have no choice and you must make it on a humid day, then cook it to the highest recommended temperature, which is 237-240F / 114 – 115C.
Cool weather also helps the candy cool faster that way it has a lesser chance of forming crystals.
Why is my fudge soft?
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!
More Chocolate Candy Recipes
- Homemade Chocolate Mint Filled Chocolates
- Chocolate Torrone
- Creamy Old Fashioned Caramel Candies
- Homemade Italian Chocolate Kisses / Baci
Old Fashioned Chocolate Fudge
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
Nutrition
Updated from November 18, 2017.
I’m so glad I took the time to learn this recipe! First batch I made crystallized 🙁
Then I found your recipe and followed it very closely. It takes patience but it turned it so well, it is the best fudge I’ve had!
Now I’m onto the next batch, I’m going to add salted peanuts now that I’m a professional 😉
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Sara, thanks so much, yup patience is the answer here. Merry Christmas.
My fudge turned out dry, may have cooked it too long. Thought it was ruined but I read somewhere to put it in a zip lock bag with a damp paper towel overnight. Than worked like a charm, it was delicious after that.
Hi Jackie, thanks that’s interesting. Glad it worked out.
Fudge, just like most caramelly sugary mixtures, stiffens as it cools. Do you guys seriously wait until it’s down to room temp before pouring it out of the pan? By then it’s stuck? For me this reliably happens every single time.
I’ll resort to stirring the butter in before it looses its viscosity. Heresy or not.
Loved this recipe! Been trying to experiment with additions: tried crushed Butterfinger and M&M’s. It did make it hard to cut without crumbling though. Think I’ll stick with plain, but I want to try with peanut butter too!
Tried it without a thermometer first…that was a disaster! Definitely need the candy thermometer!
Hi Jenny, thanks so much. A lot of readers make it with peanut butter, and yes I can never make candy without a thermometer. Merry Christmas.
The fudge never set.
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.
Hi Gustavo, thanks so much for the helpful tips. Take care & Merry Christmas.
Hey! So I tried this for the first time today and it came out crumbly (maybe I should have stopped beating it right when it lost it’s gloss and not gone by the 6 minute mark? I was very careful to watch the temperatures). I tried Gustavo’s fix and it helped, but the second time, it never lost the gloss and it is not as firm as fudge should be (still yummy though!).
I’m just curious where I went wrong? Maybe the second time I added too much milk/butter? Any advice?
Hi Adrienne, yes as soon as it looses it’s gloss, sometimes it’s more sometimes less. If you added more than the recipe then yes it probably is too much. 🙂
Hi there! What size pan did you use to pour the fudge into?
Thanks!
Hi Barbara I used an 8 inch pan. 🙂
Hi – is it possible to provide these ingredient quantities in grams. I have tried converting American cups to grams and the results have been a disaster!! I am sure a lot of your visitors are from outside the US so metric measurements would be great. Thank you.
Hi Dawn, in the recipe card where you see US Custom – Metric, click on metric and it will convert for you. Hope that helps.
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. Soft chewy and delicious. Thank you for this recipe. New family favorite for the holidays
Hi Krista thanks so much, and thank you for adding the great tips. Merry Christmas.
This is the Hershey’s recipe, posted on their website, btw. It is also my favorite. I can remember the first time I tried it at 5 years old.
can you help me? our isnt setting and it’s been about 24 hours.
Hi Sophie it could be that your fudge wasn’t heated enough, what you can try doing is add a little cream and bring back up the the temperature to set it. Let me know how it goes.
Ours didn’t set as well. Should I re-boil it and then heat it up at low temp again? Or can I just skip the boil stage?
Hi Amanda, I just left a note in the recipe card about this that a reader wrote. Take a look it may help. Let me know.
This is truly the old fashion fudge recipe that we used back home in Va.It’s really easy to make but you have to be patient.thank you
Hi Marie, thanks and yes patience is the answer! 🙂 Merry Christmas.
I’m going to stand by my 5 stars, even though I fudged my first batch. First the sauce pan I used was too small for my mother’s liking. So when it started to rise during the boiling stage she panicked and insisted I pour it into a larger pan….Mistake #1. Second the pan that was used was now larger in surface area. By the time the chocolate cooled, 2 minutes after stirring it, it went to a solid state…..I will make fudge for the holiday because it has a beautiful favor profile.
Hi Kristy thanks so much. Mother’s know best 🙂 Merry Christmas.
My first attempt has the consistency of runny Jello. I know I used the right amount of ingredients. Any suggestions?
You have to make sure that it goes to the correct temperature and that you beat it enough. Let me know.
I followed your recipe, even carefully watching temps on my candy thermometer. But, it didn’t set up correctly. It’s too hard. Half stuck to my “non stick” pan. I am cooking over a gas stovetop and had it turned down to the lowest setting while it reached the 234 mark. Wondering if it was too hot still? Should I try again on a smaller burner?
Hi Laura, it could be that it boiled too quickly, try it on a smaller burner. Let me know.