As I recently mentioned in my post about Vanilla Fairy Fudge, I really, really, really don’t like fudge that’s made with condensed milk.

So I’ve been experimenting with fudge recipes lately (ones withOUT condensed milk), and today I wanted to share my Chocolate Fudge.

This stuff is AH-may-zing!!!

Just supremely smooth and decadent and perfectly chocolatey!

I think I’m in love.

Just look at that pile of perfection.

Sigh……

This is the stuff dreams are made of.

Anyway – back to the recipe.

Basic fudge stuff, plus a cocoa powder that you like.

Mix together the sugar and cocoa….

Then mix all of it (except the vanilla) in a sauce pot.

Then whisk it to make sure it’s all mixed.

Bring it up to a boil…..

Then simmer until it hits 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

Which is important. You gotta wait until it gets to 235 (soft ball stage) before you take it off the stove. Otherwise it won’t set properly.

Stir in the vanilla and then put the whole pot on top of a bunch of ice cubes in a big bowl.

Stir, stir, stir.

After a couple of minutes, it will be much thicker. Time to transfer to your prepared pan!

I recommend lining your pan with tin foil and then greasing it with a very light layer of butter or a nonstick cooking spray. I like coconut oil spray.

BUT – I need to stress that the pan pictured here is NOT a big 9 by 13 inch baking pan! I didn’t realize that it would look like that in the photos. I usually use an 8 by 8 inch baking dish for this, but just happened to grab this little guy when I was photographing this batch.

The dish pictured here is actually 1.5 quarts or approximately 6 by 10 inches.

After a short time, you’ll be able to pick the fudge up out of the pan with the foil and turn it over to allow the bottom to set.

Then you can (carefully) flip it over again and cut it into pieces.

Let those pieces sit out for a while to fully set all around. I will usually leave them out overnight or for at least a few hours, just to make extra sure they’ve hit the texture I’m looking for before I pack them away.

The pieces of fudge you will get from this recipe are pretty small, by design.

If you want really thick giant chunks, you’ll have to either double (triple??) the recipe, or just pour it into a smaller pan to set.

But just take a look at that gorgeous pile of deliciousness…… you’ll be wanting to try this. About right now.

Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 ½ cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare an 8×8-inch baking dish with foil and a light coating of butter or cooking spray.

Whisk together the milk, cream, sugar, cocoa, and butter in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer it without stirring. This is important: do NOT stir the mixture! After 15 minutes, test the temperature with a thermometer. Once it reaches 235°F or soft ball stage, remove from heat. Do NOT stop simmering until it reaches this temperature, or it will not set. It will be noticeably thicker at this point, but still slightly runny.

Let it sit for a minute and then stir in the vanilla extract.

Fill a large bowl with ice and place the saucepan into the bowl on top of the ice. Stir the fudge for a few minutes until it is very thick. Then (making sure not to let any of the melted ice get into your fudge) pour it into the prepared baking dish, spreading it smooth.

Place baking dish on a wire rack and allow to completely set. This may take a half hour or a little longer, depending on the temperature and humidity of your home. Then carefully remove the fudge from the dish by pulling out the foil. Carefully invert it on a flat plate or platter and allow the bottom to dry. Again, this may only take a few minutes.

Cut into squares or rectangles with a sharp knife and allow the pieces to sit for a while without touching. I usually leave them out overnight to make sure each piece is fully set and has a nice solidity all the way around the smooth interior. Makes about 4 dozen very small pieces, depending on how you cut it.

[Note: the recipe can be doubled or put in a smaller pan if you like thicker pieces.]

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Click below for the free printable PDF version of this recipe:

Chocolate Fudge

And if you like this, be sure to check out my Vanilla Fairy Fudge:

Or if you’d prefer cookies……..

Happy Baking!

I am a BIG fan of fudge.

But I stopped making fudge for a long time. I got tired of trying out recipe after recipe and never having an end result that resembled what you’d find in candy stores or ice cream shops.

This was mostly because every recipe that I tried called for condensed milk. And each and every one of those recipes left me with a fudge that was mushy and half-melted at room temperature. Which – to me – isn’t really fudge.

Recently I decided to tackle this particular dessert again. I tried some different combinations of ingredients and some different methods of cooking. There were successes. And there were failures. What I’m posting today was not only a success but a hit.

And I’ll be sharing more fudge recipes soon, but today, let’s just start with this Vanilla Fairy Fudge.

Why “fairy?”

Well, when I was doing Letter F Day with my girls, I wanted to make a snack that started with the letter F. I was enchanted by the pictures of Fairy Bread that I found on the internet (it’s an Australian treat – not something we see over here in the U.S.), but I decided to go one step further and add another “F” to make it better fit my alphabet theme. Thus, Fairy Fudge.

The fudge I made that day, however, was a bit of a failure. Not completely – I mean, we did eat it…..

But it was yet another condensed milk recipe.

Turns out you can use regular milk (and some cream, too) and come up with something even better. Which is what we have here. And it’s surprisingly easy, too, once you know the steps to take.

Originally this was just Vanilla Fudge, which was – don’t get me wrong – great, but I just couldn’t stop thinking about my Letter F recipe. So I added some sprinkles to the next batch. Great became awesome.

Because sprinkles just make life better.

The ingredients are pretty basic: butter, milk, sugar, etc.

Heavy whipping cream is pretty much the only think here that I’d have to remember to actually pick up at the store ahead of time.

Everything except the vanilla and sprinkles gets mixed together and brought to a boil.

Once you reach a boil, you turn it down and simmer it for 15 minutes or so.

There is NO stirring. You just watch to make sure it’s still bubbling, but that it never boils over. Especially on stoves like mine. My stove seems to change its temperature when it feels like it.

The important thing is that your fudge reach a temperature of 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

Even if it takes more that 15 minutes. This step is important.

Then you mix in the vanilla and stir it over a bowl of ice to cool it down quickly.

When stirring it over the ice, it’ll thicken noticeably.

Then it’s ready to go into your prepared pan. I like to coat the pan with foil first, to make it easier to remove the fudge once it’s set, but you also need something to grease it with.

Butter works well as long as you don’t overdo it. I sometimes use nonstick cooking spray. My favorite is coconut oil spray.

Cover the top with sprinkles (all the way to the edges) right away.

It’s better to put too much than too little. After it’s set, just tilt it to allow the extras to fall away.

The fudge should set quickly. I might let it sit for an hour just to be extra certain, but it usually sets in just a few minutes.

Then you take it out of the pan and turn it over VERY gently onto a large plate (retro plate optional).

But even if you’re like me and you sometimes stop paying attention to what you’re doing and you manage to break the fudge into two or three chunks, that’s okay. You can always cut the pieces diagonally.

And this recipe is meant to produce small pieces. Not gigantic thick hunks of candy. If you want it thicker, though, it’s easy enough to double the recipe or just put it in a smaller pan to set. Your choice.

I then leave those little pieces out overnight, or for a few hours, to make extra, extra certain that they’re fully set all the way around. I don’t like mushy edges.

Because the best part is biting into the crisp edges of the fudge piece and discovering the smooth, soft melt-in-your mouth center.

Mmmmmmm…… I think I need to go make some more fudge…….

Above is a photo of what the fudge looks like without the sprinkles.

Still delicious. Just not as colorful.

And, honestly, I love the texture that the sprinkles add to it. But it’s a choice that’s up to you. I promise I won’t judge your fudge. (As long as you don’t judge my rhymes.)