Greweling Maple Fudge Recipe - help!

[andie_faun]

Hello all,

 

Let me preface this post with sharing that I'm a home candy maker with little formal training, so thanks in advance for your patience with me I just purchased Greweling's Chocolate and Conf (2nd ed) and wanted to use my recently acquired marble slab for the first time so I've been trying to make the maple fudge recipe - a total of six times now and still no success so I was wondering if I might pick your brains to see what I might be doing wrong? 

 

So far, all but one batch has turned into an sticky, thick caramel.Thus far, I've re-caibrated both my digital and glass candy thermometers, switched to using a heat diffuser between my pot and stove burner, tried temperatures ranging from 240-245 degrees, and still I get caramel. My most recent batch I took off the heat at 240, and after about an hour it creamed up a bit but was more the texture of fondant - completely smooth and not fudge like at all. 

 

I've gone down to making 1/4 batches at this point to stop wasting all the expensive maple syrup, and I'm about ready to give up on this. Help? Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong or should try differently? 

 

TIA!

[minas6907]

If its not firming up after agitation, cook it to a higher temp. Ive seen this with some of the formulas from chocolates and confections, notably taffy and fudge. Some of the temps given seem low, they dont yield a firm product, and this is after many many attempts with my calibrated thermocouple. I had problems with the chocolate fudge formula and it didnt come out until I gradually boiled to a higher temp, got the result I was looking for, and made a note of the temp. Just boil a few degrees higher each time until it sets up and crystallizes properly.

[Tri2Cook]

 I had problems with the chocolate fudge formula and it didnt come out until I gradually boiled to a higher temp, got the result I was looking for, and made a note of the temp. Just boil a few degrees higher each time until it sets up and crystallizes properly.

I was just mentioning recently that I was going to give Greweling's chocolate fudge recipe (from C&C 1st edition) a try in the near future. I like to check out different fudge recipes but for some reason haven't got around to that one yet. Any chance you'd be willing to share the final temp you went with?

 

[minas6907]

Sure thing. Im actually honeymooning right now, but ill check in my notes what I wrote down when we get back!

[Tri2Cook]

Sure thing. Im actually honeymooning right now, but ill check in my notes what I wrote down when we get back!

Honeymooning! What are you doing talking with us schlubs?  Congrats!

I've seen people post here on eGullet that they've made Greweling's fudge but I've never noticed anybody saying whether or not they actually liked it or if it's worth bothering with so I thought I'd check it out for myself.

 

[minas6907]

Honeymooning! What are you doing talking with us schlubs?  Congrats!

I've seen people post here on eGullet that they've made Greweling's fudge but I've never noticed anybody saying whether or not they actually liked it or if it's worth bothering with so I thought I'd check it out for myself.

 

I'm back!

 

Ok, no in my notes I have down that boiling to about 248 f will give the desired result. I remember being quite annoyed with this because I had made it so many times with the same outcome of the fudge not setting up properly after agitating. I'm honestly not much of a fudge person, but after looking in my notes I remembered that I also tried the chocolate fudge recipe from CIA's book Baking and Pastry, which obviously had Greweling's influence on the Chocolates and Confections portion. Some of the formulas are a bit different when compared to what he has in Chocolates and Confections, but they do work, especially the fudge.

[Tri2Cook]

Welcome back! And thanks!

[jdux999]

Hello.  I've been using Greweling's fudge formulas for a few months now and I'm very happy with them.  I also raised his cooking temperatures up by a degree or 2 and got the consistency that I was looking for - a little softer than "normal" fudge.  I make all 5 of his recipes and find them as tasty as any fudge I've come across, and with excellent shelf life.

 

I do have a question, if anyone can help: I want to make a much wider variety of fudge flavors but all of the recipes I can find are more "home" recipes that use very little glucose (if any) and none of them use invert sugar.  Does anyone know a reliable ratio that I can use to substitute a portion of the sugar with glucose and invert sugar?  Thanks, John 

[Tri2Cook]

On ‎2014‎-‎10‎-‎15 at 10:13 AM, minas6907 said:

Ok, no in my notes I have down that boiling to about 248 f will give the desired result.

Anybody know if this would apply to all of the variations in Chocolates and Confections or just the maple? The chocolate, maple, penuche and peanut butter all have different temps it says to cook to. I'm wondering if going to 248 for all of them is the way to go or just going 2 or 3 degrees above what's in the book for each would be better. I'm behind on everything this year so I don't really have a lot of time to experiment with it. If nobody has the answer, I'll probably just go to 248 for all of them. I'd rather have it on the too firm side than not have it set at all.

[Kerry Beal]

I'd probably try all at 248 myself.

[Tri2Cook]

26 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I'd probably try all at 248 myself.

Thanks Kerry. I'm not doing all of them at this time, probably just the penuche and peanut butter, but I figured I might as well ask about them all while I was at it. I was planning to do the chocolate until I realized (lack of reading carefully before) the recipe calls for chocolate liquor. I don't have any on hand and wasn't sure if subbing dark chocolate would work. Actually, I do have a rather large quantity of chocolate liquor but I've had it for a lot longer than I want to admit so I'm not sure I trust it.

[Kerry Beal]

Is he referring to cocoa mass by chocolate liquor? I.e. Unsweetened chocolate?

 

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Is he referring to cocoa mass by chocolate liquor? I.e. Unsweetened chocolate?

 

Yep.

[Kerry Beal]

I'd sub bittersweet

 

 

[Tri2Cook]

23 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

I'd sub bittersweet

Best I've got in large quantity right now is 60%. I'll give it a shot.

[Tri2Cook]

Not sure if I'm sold on the peanut butter fudge or not. I guess I need to be fair and give it a day before I do an official taste. It's more ingredient and labor intensive than the peanut butter fudge my grandmother always made. At this point, tasting right after agitating before dumping it in the frame, the peanut butter flavor is definitely there and fine but not as intense as in my grandmother's version. I'm hoping the flavor will come forward more by the time it sets and ripens a bit. Can't compare the texture at this point since I just finished it. I think I'm going to hold off doing other flavors until I see what I think of this batch. If the flavor balances a little more and I like the texture, I'll give one or two others a shot.

[Tri2Cook]

Nope. I'm not ruling out the possibility of operator error somewhere in the process, though it's not exactly difficult, but I'm really not all that impressed with it. It's not bad at all. it's just not good enough to be worth all the fancy ingredients that don't appear in more usual versions. Oh well, it got me off my behind and doing something yesterday since I had the day off and now I know.

Edited December 28, 2016 by Tri2Cook (log)