4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge Recipe - Butter with a Side of Bread (2024)

FAQs

Why is my peanut butter fudge not getting hard? ›

If your fudge turned out super sticky, or it didn't set as it cooled, it probably never got hot enough. This mistake is super easy to avoid if you use a candy thermometer and cook the fudge to the temperature specified in the recipe (usually between 234 and 239°F).

If it doesn't boil, your fudge will end up too mushy, and if it cooks for too long, you'll end up with a dry, crumbly mess. This is why many recipes recommend using a candy thermometer, so you know exactly when to remove your mixture from the heat.

Coarse grainy fudge results when large crystals are allowed to form. Butter is added in the final stages to add flavor and smoothness and inhibit large crystal formation. Use unsalted butter so you can add a small amount of salt (¼ teaspoon per stick of butter) to the sugar/liquid mixture.

Once a seed crystal forms, it grows bigger and bigger as the fudge cools. A lot of big crystals in fudge makes it grainy. By letting the fudge cool without stirring, you avoid creating seed crystals.

You have to control two temperatures to make successful fudge: the cooking temperature AND the temperature at which the mixture cools before stirring to make it crystallize. Confectionery experiments have shown that the ideal cooking temperature for fudge is around 114 to 115 °C (237 to 239 °F).

If your fudge is soft or runny, it probably didn't come up to a high enough temperature while it was cooking. Put it back into the saucepan and add 1–2 US tbsp (15–30 ml) of 35% fat whipping cream. Stir the fudge as it heats, but only until the sugar in the chocolate is completely melted again.

If the sugar crystals are not properly dissolved before cooling, they can create a gritty texture. To avoid this, ensure that you stir the fudge mixture consistently and remove any sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan using a wet pastry brush.

Cut the fudge into small pieces around one inch and put it on the plate and place each fudge with the distance in between. Keep a bowl of water inside the microwave along with the fudge to create moisture for the pieces to inhale. Next, microwave the fudge pieces for just 10 seconds.

OPTION 4) If you think the reason it didn't set was because you didn't heat it to the right temperature, you could try putting it back into the pan and re-cooking.

Both salted butter and unsalted butter can be used interchangeably in any recipe, but if the recipe calls specifically for unsalted butter, it's probably because the recipe has been tested with it and is preferred for that particular recipe.

What happens if you use salted butter instead of unsalted in baking? ›

If you're baking and swapping in salted butter, the excess water from salted butter may make more of an impact. This is because extra water can have an effect on how gluten reacts and forms within dough. Consider slightly lessening any additional water the recipe may call for.

When you cook, unlike when you bake, you can taste as you go – and in fact many savory recipes instruct you to “add salt to taste.” Thus if a recipe calls for unsalted butter, but you add salted instead, you will be able to taste the dish's saltiness and then add as little, or as much, extra salt as you would like.

According to most recipes, the ingredients of fudge are cooked to what is termed in kitchen parlance the soft ball stage, that point between 234 and 240 °F (112 and 115 °C) at which a small ball of the candy dropped in ice water neither disintegrates nor flattens when picked up with the fingers.

Allow the fudge mixture to rest until the temperature registers between 150°-160°. Once the desired temperature is reached, beat the ever-loving stuffing out of the fudge. Two to three minutes of hardcore mixing (by hand).

OPTION 3) Sieve together some powdered sugar and cocoa powder, and gradually work this into your unset fudge until it reaches the consistency of dough, then roll out and cut into squares, or shape into balls and then roll in powdered sugar (roll the balls in icing sugar, not yourself).

If you don't heat your fudge to a high enough temperature, you'll end up with a soft product. And if you heat the mixture too much, your fudge may be harder than you'd like.

After your fudge has completely set (this usually takes about four hours on the counter top), remove it from the foil and cut it into squares. If you use a rounded baking pan, cut off just enough of the edge so that the fudge no longer has a rounded edge. Doing this will give every piece of fudge a nice flat bottom.