My failed fudge.. (this weeks reflection on baking)

This week I choose to stick with the fudge theme. I returned to my childhood memories of making fudge remembering that I come from a family of brilliant fudge makers and was always praised on my excellence in baking chocolate fudge. Due to not living in my family home and having access to the Edmond's cook book which contains the recipe for the fudge which I have made over the years I decided to use the internet to find a basic fudge recipe. In my success I used a basic chocolate fudge recipe which was aimed at ‘kids in the kitchen’. This seemed appropriate. My gut feeling thought that the amount of butter on this recipe seemed to be a lot less than the fudge id always made, and to quote Julie and Julia 2009 ‘you can never have too much butter’. 

I decided to stick with this recipe and carry on with my baking. As the fudge came together in the pot the aromas sailed around the house alluring my two male flat mates into the kitchen. This aesthetic property is the first thing that can bring people together to establish a social element around the activity of baking.
Whilst cooking the fudge i decided to have a little taste - which i beleive is essential when you are baking ' the cooks prioritive' as my mother would say. I didnt take into account that what i was tasting was literally burning sugar and burnt the roof of my mouth. However i did learn that if you burn the roof of your mouth scrape the burnt skin off and it heals faster and doesnt feel as weird. - Yuk, I know.

To my surprise I seemed to begin to burn the fudge and my thick decadent looking liquid began to go grainy! Bruce B. (2007) reflects on the art to making good fudge.  ‘The secret to successful fudge is to get micro crystals forming from the sugar at exactly the right time so they are small enough that they don’t feel grainy on your tongue’ Bruce B. (2007).
I quikly put the pot back on the element and added more milk - i think i did this because i always remember my mother adding more of something when food was looking disastrous. I waited until I had some kind of fudge like consistancy and put it into the dish to set. A crumbly sugary disaster. I looked at my fudge and felt embarrassed with myself. I stuffed up fudge, the sweet which I was excellent at making as a child. 

I went with the recipe and my fudge turned out to be rather grainy and crumby. I was disappointed however the flat mates enjoyed the taste which essentially is what baking come down to. Or is it?

Lesson learnt – Perhaps it wasn’t a good recipe over the internet, or maybe it was the different physical environment, or could it possibly be the fact that my mother wasn’t there for guidance and support?

References

Bruce B. (2007), A taste of history the stories behind our favourite foods. David Bateman LTD. Auckland New Zealand.

Ephron N. Julie and Julia. (2009).

P.S. I have decided not to post this recipe however I strongly recommend the Edmond cook book for making chocolate fudge.