[Sca-cooks] Candy question, mostly...

[Johnna Holloway]

Shirley Corriher  in Cookwise says cook it to soft-ball stage
236 degrees F,  cool without disturbing to 110 degrees F and then
beat vigorously. (You might want to invest in a candy thermometer.
Overcooking is one of the things that happens.)
Being a combination of fat and protein from
the milk and chocolate, along with the factors of the sugars seems to lead
to the problems. This is one reason why there have been all these recipes
for making perfect fudge or easy fudge or guaranteed fudge that turns out.
Marshmallow fudge allows the marshmallow part to
help produce the very fine sugar crystals that help in making a creamy 
smooth product.
(Corriher said that she preferrred  marshmallow fudge by the way.)
There are 82 recipes found under "fudge" in the Food Network files
so you can experiment a lot. Some of these are cakes and desserts so you can
experiment with those too.
Alton Brown's episodes on Fudge called "Fudge Factor" aired in February
and will air again in April. He's got recipes for chocolate and peanut 
butter versions
posted on the web.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea/episode/0,1976,FOOD_9956_30302,00.html

Hope this helps.

Johnnae llyn Lewis

Phlip wrote:

>Thanks, Ranvaig. I made another batch tonight, following the instructions
>_exactly_, and we'll see what we get. Maybe it'll work, maybe not- snipped If this
>doesn't work as well as I like, I'll get a candy thermometer and get all
>scientific about it ;-)
>
>Anyway, thanks, all, and Johnna, I'm looking forwrd to what you come up
>with...
>
>Saint Phlip,
>
>  
>