Table of Contents > Recipe and Essay Great Grandma's Fudge

Cooking Time: PT5M

Cooking Method: bake

Category: dessert

Cuisine Type: American

Servings: 45 bars

Related: dbPedia entity

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups sugar, 3/4 cup butter or margarine, 1 small can (5 oz.) evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup) (Do not use sweetened condensed milk.), 1-1/2 pkg. (12 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped, 1 jar (7 oz.) JET-PUFFED Marshmallow Creme, 1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

  1. Line 9-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides.
  2. Bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3-qt. saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly.
  3. Cook 4 min. or until candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees F, stirring constantly.
  4. Remove from heat.
  5. Add chocolate and marshmallow creme; stir until melted.
  6. Add vanilla; mix well.
  7. Pour into prepared pan; spread to cover bottom of pan.
  8. Cool completely.
  9. Use foil handles to lift fudge from pan before cutting into squares.
Great Grandma's Fudge

Table of Contents > Recipe and Essay Jackie's "Fantasy" Fudge

Laurie Mondloch grew up in Mountain Home, Idaho, outside of Boise. She was one of four children and the only daughter. Naturally, being the only daughter and the baby of the family she was treated as such, however, not by her mother and father but by her grandmother, Jacqueline "Jackie" Temres. To her grandmother Laurie was the most special little girl in the world, and not having a very close-knit family life at her house, she always looked forward to special treatment at her grandma's house.

Laurie not only learned how to cook extravagant meals from her grandma but also the importance of eating family dinners around the table. Laurie recalls Jackie insisting on cooking everyone's favorite meal whenever they came to dinner and she made sure that the entertainment during dinner was not the television but the conversation between people at the table. This practice carried on into Laurie's adult life. She says, "I wanted to be involved in all levels of the children's upbringing. One of the easiest ways of doing that was to have family dinners every night."

Laurie remembers learning to cook from her grandma by watching her and her grandma making the kitchen a warm and fun place. Her grandma would cook just to cook and had a special spot in her heart for the sweeter things in life, something that she passed on to Laurie. Laurie would watch and learn from her grandma, as she would whip up any dessert concoction that would come to her mind or that she had heard about. However, the most memorable thing that Jackie would make was Laurie's favorite sweet treat, chocolate fudge.

Perched on her step stool to see the stove, Laurie watched countless times as Jackie carefully checked the fudge as it melted in a pot on the stovetop. Her grandma taught her each step as she stirred in the sugar, marshmallow fluff, and chocolate, and then poured the mixture into a pan to harden. Each and every time, her grandma would tell her to wait a few minutes as it cooled so that she could lick the well-worn wooden spoon covered in melted fudge. Laurie has endless memories of making the fudge for special dinners or anytime either one of them had a sweet craving. Jackie was known for her fudge by all her family and friends, and until the day she passed away, she told the story of when she gave her recipe to her friend and her friend sold the recipe to Kraft. This is the recipe on the back of marshmallow fluff jars to this day called, Fantasy Fudge, and was actually her original recipe.

Laurie has carried on this tradition of spoiling her kids with her grandmother's amazing fudge and making it for her son anytime he comes home. Every time she makes it she uses the same old, warped, discolored pot that Jackie used and tells the story of how the Kraft recipe was actually Great Grandma's.