I have a confession. I have never used a candy thermometer. My dad gave me one, but I don’t use it for candy. I will go out of my way to find recipes that don’t use one. This recipe is perfect!
Mom found this recipe in a newspaper article 55 years ago and has been making it since. I can’t even imagine how many pounds of fudge she’s made. She only makes it at Christmastime now, but she used to make it any old time — whenever there was a rich chocolate craving. You can use whatever type of chips you’d like, for whatever flavor of fudge you’d like. My favorite is layering chocolate and peanut butter. Or they have the milk chocolate/peanut butter chips now!
I have another confession. This is the first time I’ve made this fudge recipe. Mom makes it for all of us at Christmas, so I leave her to her recipe, I don’t overstep. BUT I did this time! We had a craft fair this past Saturday and I was helping her out. She made chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter. I thought these snowmen would be so cute made with the premier white chips! They would have been — had I not skipped an important step in the recipe — grease the pan you’re going to mold them in! But let’s pretend I did.
How to make Mom’s Fudge::
1 cup (2 sticks) Parkay margarine (she has never varied from this, but I’m sure you could!)
1 can evaporated milk
5 cups sugar
3 cups (1 1/2 – 12 ounce – bags) chips — chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, vanilla
1 (10 1/2 ounce) bag mini marshmallows
Combine margarine, milk, and sugar together.
Over medium heat, heat together until a rolling (cannot stir down) boil. Boil for 12 minutes.
While it’s boiling, get your pans ready. And don’t forget to GREASE them! Butter any pans you will be using, even those non-stick ones. If you’re using silicone molds, you can skip this step. But please don’t skip this step for anything metal or glass. I would love to say “Lesson Learned!”, but I’ve done it before with my own fudge recipe, with the same results, so I will probably do it again 😉
Mix in chips and marshmallows and stir like crazy until they’re all melted.
Pour into pans.
This recipe makes 5 pounds of fudge. It makes a bunch! I thought it would fill my snowman pans.
Then I grabbed out my silicone mini-cake pan. Then my mini-muffin pan.
Let sit until cooled and hardened, maybe an hour. Tip out and wrap. Or if you’re like me, put the pans in the freezer to try to get them out. When that doesn’t work, put a couple inches of hot water in the sink and set the pan in. And cry when the details don’t come out.
Accept that only the mini-cakes are going to the craft fair and the family will be getting the snowmen for Christmas.
Tie a rope candy around the neck for a scarf. The rope licorice would work here great, but I couldn’t find them. I found some sort of “wheels” that I pulled apart for a rope.
Put in a cello bag with a tag to gift!
Get the handy print page and save this to your recipe box here:
Mom’s Fudge.
Cindy blogs at Chippewa Creek ~ Our Life Simplified.
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Happy Candy Making!
Update 2:00 p.m. I remelted the fudge. Thanks mamma leigh for the suggestion! It came out of the molds with just a little persuasion with a thin knife at the end (it moved around, but it seemed like there was a suction). The taste is the same, the consistency is the same. You can see the details. But I think from the reheating there are air pockets, or I should have banged them on the counter. I didn’t do that the first time, though. I did a couple in the mini-muffin pan so I would have something for the taste test. Those turned out perfect. The family will still love them! 🙂
judydee says:
Just a word from my experience–don’t substitute for the Parkay!! Several years ago we made my mom’s fudge recipe 4 times before we figured out that the “on sale” margarine we were using was the problem–it just wouldn’t harden. Perhaps that margarine had too much water?? I also shared the recipe with someone giving written and verbal instructions to be sure and use Parkay. She didn’t and then complained that she just couldn’t make fudge!!
On December 7, 2010 at 6:20 am
GrannyTrace says:
HOW cool is that!! Thanks for sharing your moms fudge recipe!! Love the snowman!!
Granny Trace 🙂
On December 7, 2010 at 6:23 am
Linda Goble says:
Wow, where did you find the snow man pan. I thought about making fudge this year. I will try your fudge recipe. Thanks for posting it for us to try.Happy Holidays!!!!!!!!!
On December 7, 2010 at 7:01 am
CindyP says:
judydee — I am not even sure Parkay was in the original recipe, I asked her. She said she didn’t know, she’s always used Parkay when buying margarine. Now you have me scared. LOL! And you have me tempted to try an experiment!
Linda — the pan I think I got at Walmart years ago to make little snowman cakes. Never did. First time used!
On December 7, 2010 at 7:12 am
mamma-leigh says:
OK, the snowmen that you made are adorable, but you said you could not get the details of the pan could you remelt them? Or would that damage the fudge?
On December 7, 2010 at 9:04 am
CindyP says:
I dug the fudge out of the mini-muffin pan and I’m going to try the remelting today, see if it hurts the fudge or not. I’ve never tried it, but I figure it can’t hurt to try 🙂 Will comment back here with the findings 🙂
On December 7, 2010 at 9:09 am
KentuckyFarmGirl says:
Those are so cute! You are so talented! I just love it when you share our ideas because I try them and they always work great LOL! Did you see my mini peppermint soaps??
On December 7, 2010 at 9:15 am
CindyP says:
Fudge is remelted and in the mold now! 🙂 The consistency seemed to be the same…waiting for it to set.
On December 7, 2010 at 9:51 am
rosemary+++ says:
Thanks for sharing your receipe I shall pass it onto my daughter in law who makes the fudge in the family
On December 7, 2010 at 10:13 am
Ewenique says:
Cindy, What an adorable idea, and I’m sure at a craft show they would sell like hotcakes! Fudge is on the list of things to make, my recipe is very similar but will be the first time I try it, it calls for margarine, does anyone know about substituting butter? I’m kinda worried now, hate to waste 5 lbs. of fudge.Margaret
On December 7, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Lana says:
Cindy – I was wondering the same thing as Ewenique. Can you use butter instead of Parkay? This looks like a good (and pretty easy) fudge recipe.
On December 7, 2010 at 2:25 pm
CindyP says:
I updated the post with the remelting of the fudge.
I went to Mom’s and found the ORIGINAL recipe. It says margarine. She has always used Parkay, that’s why her recipe calls for Parkay. That was from 1955…was margarine more used than butter then?
I don’t have an answer if butter can be used in this recipe instead of margarine. I’m inclined to say yes, but it is 5 pounds of fudge. I don’t want that 5 pounds to be wasted if butter just doesn’t work….just like judydee commented on in the first comment not to substitute the Parkay for any old margarine.
On December 7, 2010 at 2:58 pm
LisaAJB says:
“I have a confession. I have never used a candy thermometer.” You are my hero. My husband and I are teachers, so our budget isn’t huge and cooking gadgets is one area where I feel I can successfully do without. Also, this recipe looks DELICIOUS! Thanks for sharing.
On December 7, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Larissa says:
Mmmm– Yummy!
I use my candy thermometer in the chicken incubator. The cheese thermometer too.
On December 9, 2010 at 12:32 am
mamma-leigh says:
OK I tried this fudge last night and did something horribly wrong!! It wont set, Still this morning it has the consistency of hard jello…if that makes any sense. Got any suggestions?? I will give you my number to walk me through if I need to I am a little dense when it comes to this I have never made any before…HELP they are Christmas presents!!
On December 21, 2010 at 2:02 pm
CindyP says:
@momma-leigh: Did you use butter or margarine? And to make sure — medium heat to rolling boil (cannot stir down) then for 12 minutes?
On December 21, 2010 at 2:29 pm
mamma-leigh says:
I used Parkay Margarine, I got it to a boil where I could not stir it down, maybe I added everything else too soon. I didn’t clock it. I am going to try it again today. I also only made a 1/2 batch I took the recipe and cut everything in half I didn’t think that would make a difference. Maybe it did.
On December 21, 2010 at 3:05 pm
CindyP says:
Make sure you boil for the entire 12 minutes before adding the marshmallows and chips…that’s what makes it candy and lets it set up 🙂
On December 21, 2010 at 3:37 pm
mamma-leigh says:
OK I am going to give it a try again tonight…if it still doesn’t work then I am calling you for a batch!! 😉 Have a good night and thanks for all your help!
On December 21, 2010 at 7:08 pm
mamma-leigh says:
I DID IT!!!! 😀 (To quote Dora the Explorer..I have a 2 year old remember) Its funny this time I made the batter so thick that I had to scoop it out and in to the pans, not pour, but hey it looks like fudge, it taste like fudge it is fudge and if anyone..(My hubby) has a problem with it they can go buy it at a store…haha.
Really thank you for the recipe and for the help along the way!
On December 21, 2010 at 8:52 pm
CindyP says:
So glad you got it to work! I’ve been worried!
I’m sure hubby won’t be having a problem 🙂
On December 21, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Pat says:
What size can of evaporated milk did you use>
On October 20, 2012 at 12:11 pm