An English Christmas obviously involves turkey, cake, pudding and mince pies, but for me it also means fudge and pork pies, which we always ate for Christmas breakfast when I was a child. I don't eat meat any longer so the pies are out - more's the pity! - but I can't imagine a Christmas without fudge.
As we're enjoying more frugal festivities this year we decided to make some fudge for the family and to give as gifts. We're not talking about fancy flavoured stuff here, just plain ordinary fudge like my Grandma used to make from:
- 400g/14oz condensed milk
- 150ml/5fl milk
- 450g/16oz caster or demerara sugar
- 115g/4oz butter
Everyone got into the spirit of making it and it was fun for littl'un who could help with the initial stirring plus packing & eating(!) if not the hot stuff on the stove
We had problems with the first batch, which didn't "fudge" and was like very soft toffee. This provoked lots of discussion about "how grandma used to make it". Fabulously, everyone's memories of this great family tradition are completely different! My sister is adamant my mum always helped my gran, my mum claims she had nothing to do with it and I am sure that my Grandpa actually made it because you do need to be precise about the temperature you take it off the heat and how long you stir it for to get it to "fudge" and my Grandpa was very good at that kind of detail.
Anyway, whilst I gallivanted out for a far too rare "mums night out" with my old ante-natal group, my mum got the second batch to fudge with some arm breaking stirring. And boy does it taste good! Dangerously, dangerously good ... I'm not quite sure exactly how many pieces I had after "I'll just have one more!" but I do know it definitely wasn't one! And to be honest if I'm being true to the frugal spirit it would be just wrong to leave all those crumbs in the tray wouldn't it? ...like I say very, very dangerous!
0 comments