I decided to re-post this old recipe without all of my old waffling (gosh I did used to go on about all sorts of random stuff in my blog posts back in the early days!), this one was from Dec 2011, my first married Christmas when I went all out with the festivities, it was so much fun! This recipe was from the Hairy Biker's 12 days of Christmas recipe book which I love!
Ingredients:
150g butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
50g mixed dried fruit (I used cranberries, apricots and raisins)
3 balls of stem ginger in syrup, drained and chopped
100ml dark spiced rum (e.g. Captain Morgan)
1 cinnamon stick 2 star anise
1 x 397g tin of evaporated milk
500g granulated sugar
Method:
Grease an 18cm square cake tin or 26x16cm tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Grease the parchment and set aside.
Put the dried fruit, ginger and rum in a small non-stick pan with the cinnamon and star anise. Bring the rum to the boil and cook until it has completely evaporated/absorbed by the fruit, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Put the 150g butter, evaporated milk and sugar in a non-stick pan and cook over a low heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring regularly. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to the boil. It will boil furiously to begin with so make sure your saucepan is large enough to hold the mixture without it boiling over. Cook for 20-30 mins, stirring constantly and carefully with a wooden spoon to stop the fudge catching and burning.
Watch out – it will be fiendishly hot.
Put a sugar thermometer in the pan after 20 mins. You need the mixture to reach the soft ball stage at 116oC, before taking it off the heat. (If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a little fudge into a bowl of ice-cold water. The fudge should immediately form a soft ball.)
Just before the fudge is ready, it will bubble less fiercely, more like molten lava, so keep stirring as this is when it’s most likely to stick. When the fudge has reached the right point, remove it from the heat and stir energetically for 3 mins before adding the spiced fruit and ginger (take out the cinnamon and star anise). Continue stirring for another 6-8 mins as the fudge thickens.
As the fudge cools, it will gradually change from a thick, creamy mixture to form a ball in the centre of the saucepan. Keep stirring and when the fudge begins to look grainy and loses its glossy appearance, put it into the tin. It will be very stiff at this stage, so you’ll need to press it into all the corners. Smooth the surface and set the fudge aside to cool completely. After 3-4 hours you should be able to cut it into small squares ready for serving.
Store in an airtight container. Eat within a week or so.
Ingredients:
150g butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
50g mixed dried fruit (I used cranberries, apricots and raisins)
3 balls of stem ginger in syrup, drained and chopped
100ml dark spiced rum (e.g. Captain Morgan)
1 cinnamon stick 2 star anise
1 x 397g tin of evaporated milk
500g granulated sugar
Method:
Grease an 18cm square cake tin or 26x16cm tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. Grease the parchment and set aside.
Put the dried fruit, ginger and rum in a small non-stick pan with the cinnamon and star anise. Bring the rum to the boil and cook until it has completely evaporated/absorbed by the fruit, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Put the 150g butter, evaporated milk and sugar in a non-stick pan and cook over a low heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring regularly. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to the boil. It will boil furiously to begin with so make sure your saucepan is large enough to hold the mixture without it boiling over. Cook for 20-30 mins, stirring constantly and carefully with a wooden spoon to stop the fudge catching and burning.
Watch out – it will be fiendishly hot.
Put a sugar thermometer in the pan after 20 mins. You need the mixture to reach the soft ball stage at 116oC, before taking it off the heat. (If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a little fudge into a bowl of ice-cold water. The fudge should immediately form a soft ball.)
Just before the fudge is ready, it will bubble less fiercely, more like molten lava, so keep stirring as this is when it’s most likely to stick. When the fudge has reached the right point, remove it from the heat and stir energetically for 3 mins before adding the spiced fruit and ginger (take out the cinnamon and star anise). Continue stirring for another 6-8 mins as the fudge thickens.
As the fudge cools, it will gradually change from a thick, creamy mixture to form a ball in the centre of the saucepan. Keep stirring and when the fudge begins to look grainy and loses its glossy appearance, put it into the tin. It will be very stiff at this stage, so you’ll need to press it into all the corners. Smooth the surface and set the fudge aside to cool completely. After 3-4 hours you should be able to cut it into small squares ready for serving.
Store in an airtight container. Eat within a week or so.
All the stirring was hard work but totally worth it! Nik says it's even better than last year's fudge which was from a different recipe and also nice - just a bit sweeter. This Christmas fudge has a nice spice to it from the ginger!
You can buy the book pretty cheap on Amazon now!
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