George’s Fudge

 

  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 Cup milk
  • 1/2 Cup white Karo corn syrup
  • 2 Tablespoons butter or margarine, plus 2 Tablespoons more to grease pan
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup pecan halves

Grease a 9-inch cake or pie pan with 2 Tablespoons of butter.

In a 3-quart saucepan, mix  sugar, salt and cocoa.  Next, add Karo syrup and milk.

Place pot on burner and turn heat to medium high (7 on a scale of 0-9) and stir to keep sugar from burning as it begins to boil.

Keep boiling and stirring for 9-10 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved and the liquid is at soft ball stage.

Soft ball stage: In a cup of chilled water, drizzle a little of the hot syrup and stir the water with your finger.  If the syrup can be shaped into a soft ball in the cold water, it is at soft ball stage.  If not, keep cooking the syrup and testing until you can get the ball to hold its shape in the water.

At the soft ball stage, remove pot from heat. Add the butter and vanilla and whip with a mix master at medium high (9 on a scale of 0-12) speed  about 4-5 minutes, until the gloss is gone from the fudge and it begins to hold a firm shape in the pot.

Quickly mix in the pecans and dump into the buttered cake pan.  Fudge firms as it hardens.

Cut into squares and serve warm.

In every family, there is a recipe that only one member can seem to make “right.”  In our family, fudge was made by my dad, George Foshee.  He brought the recipe home from his job; he was a shift worker at Sinclair Chemical Company.  He had tremendous strength and could beat the fudge syrup with only a wooden spoon to get it to the hardening stage.  My mom finally learned to make the fudge by beating it with a mix master.  When my dad’s schedule allowed, we would have family TV time.  Dad would make fudge,  and Mom would make popcorn by shaking the kernels and melted shortening in a covered, cast iron skillet over the gas stove.  Foshee family favorites included Bonanza, Gunsmoke and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  Color TV came to our house in the late 1960’s.