To this day, no store-bought candy compares to my Grandma’s peanut butter fudge. Coveted overnight trips to visit Mom C, as I called her, always meant enjoying an assortment of sweets and baked goods—we’d have biscuits in the morning, chocolate chip cookies before bed at night, and crescent roll snacks in between. But it was always the peanut butter fudge that I’d beg her to make. Often, she’d concede, to whip it up for me, but sometimes she refused—not because she didn’t want to, but because it was raining.
“You don’t want to make it on a rainy day, because it gets grainy,” she says. While she’s never been able to explain exactly why, she never sacrificed the sweet, nutty flavor and texture—and it was worth the wait.
My Grandma’s Famous Peanut Butter Fudge
For the longest time, I thought these strict instructions to avoid making fudge when it was raining were a peculiar, mysterious quirk unique to my Grandma, who’d insist on clear, sunny days to make peanut butter fudge. “On those days, I wake up and think, ‘It’s a good day to make candy.'”
I have never been one to question her methods or reasoning, but when I started cooking professionally, I learned that many candy recipes, like fudge or caramel, warn against making them when the humidity is high—and that includes rainy days. Turns out, it’s not just a tale as old as time—as my grandma suggests—but also a scientific fact.
How Humidity Affects Fudge
Humidity affects candy-making in several different ways. To achieve a balanced texture that’s soft to bite into yet pleasantly firm enough to slice and hold, fudge relies not just on the temperature the sugar reaches, but also on its cooling and evaporation. As fudge cools, it evaporates. On a particularly humid day, such as when it’s raining, less of the moisture evaporates. This results in a softer texture—or worse—fudge that won’t set completely.
A cool, dry day allows the fudge to cool faster, which keeps unwanted sugar crystals from forming and creating a particularly sticky, soft, or grainy texture.
Mom C’s Sunny Day Fudge
Credit: Catherine Jessee
Ingredients:
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons white corn syrup, such as Karo
Softened butter, for greasing the pan
Directions:
Stir together cocoa, sugar, salt, evaporated milk, and corn syrup in a large saucepan or a heavy-bottomed pot, such as a Dutch oven. Add evaporated milk and corn syrup.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until it reaches the softball stage, between 235 and 240 degrees F. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and peanut butter.
Prepare a heat-safe bowl with an ice-water bath; carefully set the saucepan into the cold water bath. Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat the fudge mixture until cool.
Pour mixture into a greased baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely.
Read the original article on Allrecipes
Dining and Cooking