Sweets for my sweet

It’s the end of a busy month again, I hope you have enjoyed the recipes I have given you through February. We started off the month with Baba Ghanoush which is such a tasty dip We also made mushroom bhajee and balsamic mushrooms along with roasted pepper soup and lets not forget the tasty chickpea and sweet potato curry. All tasty and all pretty easy things to make. So to finish off the month then you deserve a little treat. 

Sweets eh! We all know we shouldn't but we all love them don’t we. So when I say fudge what do you think of? Is it the late 60s American heavy metal band that did a rendition of the Supremes “Keep me hanging on”, or is it the lovely creamy fudge that you bought in Woolworths when you were young. Or maybe it’s the fudge you get from a farm or gift shop. We all love fudge and Vanilla Fudge is one of my favourites.

My mum used to make it for me when I was young so I thought it was time to have a go again myself. Vanilla fudge it was to be, you can’t go wrong with that I thought so it was a quick search online to find a recipe that suited and lo and behold good old Nigella delivered a great recipe. So here is Nigella’s recipe for Vanilla Fudge with condensed milk.

Vanilla Fudge 

 Ingredients 

• 250 grams soft butter
• 1 x 397 grams can condensed milk
• 175 ml milk
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 800 grams granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla  

Method

1. Fill a small bowl or jug with ice cold water and put near the stove. Grease a tin of approx. 30 x 20cm / 12 x 8 inch or 25cm / 10 inch square, or use a throwaway foil tin, as I have in the picture.
2. Put all the ingredients, apart from the vanilla, into a large, heavy bottomed pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly.
3. Boil for 12-20 minutes, still stirring all the time, until the mixture is golden and, when a bit is dropped into the water, it turns solid but still squidgy, i.e., till soft-ball stage (see intro). How long this takes depends on how ferociously it bubbles as well as on the properties and dimensions of the pan. This is hot work!
4. When the fudge is at soft-ball stage, very carefully remove the pan from the stove and stir in the vanilla.
5. Preferably using an electric whisk beat for about five minutes, by which time the fudge will have thickened to the texture of stiff peanut butter - this is quite steamy and strenuous - and pour and push into the prepared tin. Smooth the top as well as you can.

       6. Put in the fridge to cool, but don't keep it there for more than 2 hours, or it will set too                    hard, then remove and using a sharp knife, cut into squares.