A Tale of Three Fudges

My mission for the past week was to find the best non-marshmallow fudge recipe on the net.  Until this week, I've only ever made fudge by the Marshmallow Fluff "Never Fail Fudge" recipe because, in short, it never fails.  As that gooey crap isn't easily available here, I had to branch out.

(During my quest, I learned that fudge was invented by women on college campus in the 1890s.  It was named "fudge" because that was one of the words women would use rather than cursing.)

Recipe number one was the simplest (http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/609228).  It just involved melting chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and butter on a double boiler (or two awkward sized pots in my case), adding vanilla, and letting it set.  I decided to add some confectioners sugar to help it set as well- big mistake!  Despite the little white powdery flakes in the fudge, it turned out well.  Nothing amazing, but not bad.

Fudge number two was a plain vanilla fudge (http://www.waitrose.com/recipe/Vanilla_Fudge.aspx).  I read a hilarious blog response from an American insisting that this recipe was wrong because it forgot to add chocolate.  I don't think s/he understood that fudge was originally made without chocolate.  This recipe was a real recipe in that in required me to kill my arms by stirring the mixture constantly until it reached soft-ball stage.  The flavor and texture were great, but not all of the sugar dissolved, leaving the fudge grainy.

I was out of condensed milk by this time, so I switched to evaporated milk for recipe three (http://busycooks.about.com/od/candyandsnackmixes/r/millionfudge.htm).  This time I added some water to the mixture to ensure the sugar was dissolved.  That resulted in my half-recipe boiling over my medium sized pot, and forced me to switch to a massive spaghetti pot half-way through.  It turned out to be the best tasting overall of the three.  The texture was (or "is", I haven't eaten it all yet) almost too hard to cut, but it becomes wonderfully smooth and creamy in your mouth... mmm...