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Fudge |
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Line an eight- or nine-inch square tin with parchment and set it aside for later. If you don't have a suitable thermometer, prepare a jug of iced water and set that somewhere handy near the stove.
If you have a candy/sugar thermometer that you can clip to the side of your pan in such a way that the tip won't touch the bottom, use that, otherwise get out your instant-read thermometer. If you haven't done this lately, I recommend boiling a pot of water and testing your thermometer in it to make sure it's calibrated correctly (212°F at sea level).
Cut the butter into finger-width slices and put everything except the salt in a saucepan. If you have a non-stick saucepan, use that, as it will make both the stirring and the clean-up much easier.
Over low heat, stir the mixture constantly until the butter and sugar have liquefied, then raise the heat a bit and bring things to a rolling boil.
Keep stirring around the edges and over the bottom of the pan to keep your fudge from sticking and therefore burning. Again, if you're using a non-stick pan this is less work.
After about 10 minutes of this, you can start checking to see if the mixture has reached the soft ball stage (240°F). Either look at your sugar/candy thermometer, stick your instant-read thermometer into the mixture, taking care not to be taking the temperature of the bottom of the pan, or spoon a little bit of fudge into your jug of iced water and squeeze it to see if it's a soft ball.
When it's reached the soft ball stage, take the pan off the heat, add your pinch of salt, and beat the mixture for a minute with a wooden spoon.
Leave it to cool for 10 minutes, then beat it again and leave it alone for another 5 minutes.
Give the fudge yet another beating and pour it into your prepared tin. It'll be fairly viscous but try and smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
Refrigerate the tin of fudge for 4 hours then ease the parchment-lined block out of the tin and onto a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut it into whatever sized squares you want.
This will keep well for a few days in an air-tight container.