You know when you suddenly realise there are only a few days left until Christmas and it dawns on you that you don’t have gifts for aunts/uncles/neighbours that you’ll be seeing over the festive period? This fudge is a perfect present – delicious, easy to make and it has that homemade personal touch. I used it for all my children’s teachers this year (and last year come to that).
You will need:
A 397g tin of condensed milk
420g sugar – the recipe calls for Demerara but I have used regular soft brown sugar in the past which works fine.
115g butter (flora buttery or similar works perfectly well if you don’t have butter)
150ml milk – I use semi skimmed
A handful or two of dried, chopped cranberries (raisins can be used but cranberries look more Christmassy!)
A good amount of mixed spice or cinnamon/nutmeg (2 teaspoons ish)
- Put everything into a pan over a low heat and let the butter melt and the sugar dissolve.
- Bring to the boil and stir constantly for about 10 minutes until it’s the right consistency* – don’t let children do this as it does get really hot and can spit it bit. *what you want is for a little drop of the mixture to form a soft ball when dropped into a cup very cold water*
- Remove from the heat and add the fruit and spices
- Beat for about 10-15 minutes until the fudge is starting to set and come away from the edges of the pan (this is a great workout for the bingo wings).
- Pour/scoop it into a lined tin and leave to cool. Voila! Perfect, yummy fudge!
Chocolate Orange is a great alternative for those who don’t like the traditional Christmas flavours. This year we tried a batch with the grated zest of two clementines and about 50g of dark chocolate (I’m not great at weighing ‘stick it in and see’ ingredients!). When it had cooled down in the tin a bit I studded the fudge with more dark chocolate chips which added a little something extra!
The Sisterhood of the Long Boobs 