Classic Fudge Recipe

Fudge is the kind of candy every chocolate lover can get behind; it's soft enough to melt in your mouth but solid enough to pick up with your fingers, and oh-so rich. The trouble with many fudge recipes, though, is that you have to do all that futzing around with a candy thermometer or a glass of water to see whether your candy really has reached the soft ball stage.

Well, not with this fudge recipe! While you are, in fact, heating some of the ingredients to combine them, it's not crucial that they reach a particular temperature or stage. Instead, the marshmallow creme (aka marshmallow fluff) that's added after the cooking is done will ensure the proper texture. This particular fudge also includes a special ingredient: espresso powder. According to recipe developer Kate Shungu, this ingredient "amps up the chocolate flavor," but she assures us the fudge won't end up tasting like coffee; it just adds a little extra depth. (The stuff works great in brownies, too.) Shungu describes this fudge as "sweet, creamy, and full of chocolate flavor," and says it's "great for potlucks, cookie trays, and gift giving around the holidays."

To make this fudge, you'll need marshmallow creme, chocolate chips, espresso powder, sugar, butter, evaporated milk, and vanilla extract. If you want some extra texture in your fudge, Shungu suggests you could also "stir 1 cup of chopped nuts into the fudge along with the marshmallow creme."

Mix the sugar, butter, evaporated milk, and espresso powder in a saucepan and heat it over medium until the mixture is boiling. Allow it to boil (gently), stirring it from time to time. Do this for "exactly 5 minutes," at Shungu's insistence. At that point, turn off the stove.

Stir the chocolate chips into the warm butter mixture until they've melted. Add the marshmallow creme and vanilla and stir until you've got a smooth, homogeneous mixture. Grease a 13x9-inch baking pan or line it with parchment or wax paper, then pour the fudge into the pan. Spread the candy out as evenly as possible.

Let the fudge cool completely (which will take a few hours, so be patient), then cut it into 1-inch squares. Shungu does say, though, that if you want to decorate it, you can scatter some sprinkles over the top while it is still warm. As she tells us, "You can customize the color of the sprinkles for any holiday, like red, white, and blue for the 4th of July or orange and green for Halloween." You could also crush up some candy canes to sprinkle over Christmas fudge, as these would not only give it some color but would also add peppermint flavor.

What we're trying to say is this: Chocolate fudge is delicious at any time of the year!