I have become a bit of a stalker of The Pink Whisk website. Ruth has so many amazing looking ideas, and when I saw her idea for Christmas pudding fudge I knew I was going to make it as a gift.
Ruth included a fudge recipe on her site, but I decided to use the one that I know works for me (from Rachel Allen Home Cooking
As with all fudge recipes, get all your equipment and ingredients ready before you start- you don’t want your fudge to burn because you are plugging in the electric whisk or lining the pan.
So, line a pan (I use my brownie pan which is 10×6 inches and line with greaseproof paper), plug in the electric whisk, and get your fudge flavourings ready. This time I chopped up a small ready-to-microwave supermarket Christmas pudding- I think it was 80g?
Sorry it is a bit blurry but you get the idea.
Then in a large pan heat together 100g butter, 450g light brown soft sugar (or caster sugar) and a tin of light condensed milk.
Gently melt the ingredients, stir to stop it burning to the bottom. Then let it bubble away until it reaches the soft ball stage (113C). At this point turn off the heat and add in the Christmas pudding crumbles.
Then get out the electric whisk and beat away. (Traditional recipes seem to say to put the pan in some cold water and beat by hand, but this way always works for me).
Keep going until it gets harder to whisk. If you take the beaters out the fudge will drip off in a sort of stalactite way. Then pour into the lined pan.
Leave it to cool- I leave it at room temperature as I find it much easier to slice when it is still a little soft- in the fridge it goes too crumbly and can snap when slicing. I left this for maybe 2 hours and then it was super easy to slice.
Then bag it up ready for giving as gifts. (I had a friend visit me yesterday so she got the first bag).
Bag up the rest (and optional- keep a little pot for yourself).
It makes loads and loads- as it is so rich you need only put a dozen or so cubes in each bag and I think you could get 6 or 7 bags worth from one batch. Pretty good and a lovely gift idea I think.
Great recipe, Maria! Thanks for sharing this!
I think I’ll be making this very soon 🙂
I’ve never tried making homemade fudge, but this looks like a pretty manageable recipe!
You are such a great cook! Anything with thermometers freaks me out! They look like wonderful gifts, you must have some very lucky friends and family 🙂
This sounds go good. I’ve been thinking about making fudge for a while because it sounds relatively easy. I might go and buy a sugar thermometer tomorrow and give it a go over Christmas.
This looks awesome! I love the fudge and I love Christmas pudding, so I imagine I’d really, really like this. You’re such an inspiring cook/baker, I have so many of your recipes bookmarked to try 🙂
I saw that recipe too, it looks great! I’m not sure whether I’ll make it or not – I’ve got a free day on Friday when I am going to get as much gift baking/making done as possible, so I’ll see how the time goes.
Glad it worked so well for you – you’re so good at making everything look all festive with your packaging too 🙂
What a brilliant idea, I bet the pudding gives it a great texture and makes the fudge less sweet. I’d be dangerous around this though; my sister made fudge last Christmas and I must have eaten most of the pan by myself 🙂
And I love your reindeer pot!
Oh wow! I’ve never made homemade fudge before. It looks pretty easy but I am sure I’d find a way to mess it up lol!
Give it a go people 🙂 It is not that hard in fact- so long as you are ready with everything before you start 🙂
I gained 10 kg just looking at the photos 😉 Lovely present idea!
Shaman- not as much as you gain when you make it! Very tempting which is why I had to bag most of it up right away! 🙂
Looks DELISH!! 🙂
Planning on making this, but wondering if you cook the Christmas pudding first before adding it to the fudge?
Hi- I buy a ready made one, so they are already cooked and you just need to heat them up- so no I don’t cook it I just take it out of the packet and crumble it up. If you were making the pudding yourself you would have to cook it first. Hope it goes well 🙂
I love the sound of this recipe but could you please tell me how far in advance I would be able to make it – I want to give it to someone as a gift.
A few weeks in advance would be fine- the sugar keeps it well preserved! I made some 10 days ago and it is still fine at the moment.