Red Velvet Fudge

This is a really lovely, not too sweet, fudge. The beetroot powder gives it th red velvet colour and adds some depth to the taste. You might want to half it, or replace it with red food dye (a paste not a liquid) if you don't like beetroot! I have swirled the top with a spoon and sprinkled some edible sparkle onto it becuase a) we had it in the cupboard, b) everything is better with glitter on it. Next time I am going to try with a little pinch of salt and perhaps a little less beetroot powder but this is scrummy as it is!

Ingredients:

450g sugar
50g golden syrup (or other syrup)
175ml double/whipping cream
75 ml full fat milk
80g butter

2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used raw cacao powder)
1tbsp beetroot powder

1) Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper or get a silicone loaf tin at the ready
2) Put everything into a heavy bottomed pan
3) Melt the butter on a low heat while stirring to dissolve the sugar
4) bring to the boil on a medium heat, stirring occasionally
5) Once it's boiling nicely take a pastry brush dipped in water and wipe around the inside of the pan to make sure there are no escaped sugar crystals
6) Continue boiling until the temperature reaches a soft boil stage (115 degrees celcius on a candy thermometer or when you drop a teaspoon into a cup of cold water and it comes out as a pliable ball)
7) Turn off the heat and place in a cold water bath in the sink to prevent it from cooking
8) leave it for 10 mins or so until it has cooled down
9) Tip the mixture into a bowl and beat with electric beaters until it starts to stiffen (when you lift the beaters up you will see a trail of mixture for a few seconds at least before it sinks back into the fudge)
10) Spoon into the loaf tin, leave to cool, slice and enjoy!

Handmade Vegan Chocolates

These are really easy to make and actually pretty healthy! They stay nice and firm at room temperature and would make a great gift for any vegan (or, for that matter non-vegan) friends. This recipe fills about two ice cube trays worth of moulds, but obviously the number you get will depend on the sixe of your moulds.

Ingredients:
50g organic cocoa butter
50g virgin coconut oil
2-3 tbsp raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
2 tbps icing sugar (adjust this to your own taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
a few drops of orange essential oil (optional)

Simply add the cocoa butter to the coconut oil in a small bowl over a double boiler (I use a small milk pan). When it is melted stir in your other ingredients until it is smooth and there are no lumps, then spoon into moulds. Pop the moulds in the freezer for half an hour or so and voila! Handmade chocolates. They are very rich so you can't eat too many (which in my case is a bonus!).

Candy Melts Fudge

I don't tend to buy candy melts because they are quite high in palm oil which I generally try to avoid. However I was given some to experiement with so thought I would have a go at making some  fiudge. It came out really well. The instructions for consended milk can be used to make any other receipe you need sweetend condensed for.

1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 x 340g bag candy melts

1) line a small sqaure dish or set aside a silicone loaf tin.

2) Put the milk and the sugar in a pan and boil for about 25 mins on a steady low heat whilst stirring reguarly. It should reduce to about half.

3) When the milk has condensed then turn off the heat and add the bag of candy melts to the pan. Leave for the condensed milk to melt the chocolate, stir gently (over-storring will seperate the fats out from the fudge).

4) Chill for half hour or so in the freezer or a good hour in the fridge, cut into squares and enjoy!

Honey, Orange and Ginger Fudge Recipe

It's really crappy weather here in the UK...so I made some zesty fudge to cheer myself up. I used grated orange rind and fresh grated ginger, but they do have an effect on the texture so powdered ginger and orange essential oil/extract will work well too.

Ingredients:

50g honey
450g sugar
175ml double cream
75ml milk
80g butter

1) Line a loaf tin or small baking pan with greaseproof paper. Add all the ingredients to the pan. If you are using freshly grated orange peel and ginger add them now - otherwise add the powedered ginger and leave the orange extract until after cooking has finished.

2) Bring to the boil slowly whilst stirring constantly. Once it begins to boil then wipe down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to make sure there are no stray sugar crystals as these will re-crystalise the fudge and ruin its smooth consistency.

3) keep slowly boiling/stirring until the mixture reaches the soft ball stage. You can measure this on a thermometer (you can buy cheap digital ones online) or drop some mixture into cold water. If the mixture forms a globule that you can take out and mould then it is done; if it simply dissolves you need more cooking time.

4) Once the fudge has reached the soft ball stage submerge the pot in an inch or two of cold water in the sink - this will help it to cool more quickly. Then walk away and leave it for a good 10 mins to cool.

5) After 10 mins or so, pour into a bowl and, with an electric mixer (or wooden spoon - although this takes ages!) mix it until it begins to stiffen and lose some of its gloss. If you are adding orange essence do it before you begin to mix.

6) Pour into pan, level off and leave to set.

7) Cut into pieces and enjoy!

Coconut Fudge Recipe

I love fudge - the creamy goodness reminds me of holidaying in Devon as a child. I also love learning how to make things myself, so about eight years ago I bought a digital sugar thermometer and decided to try and work out how to make it. There were lots of failures but I worked out a recipe that I was happy with, however I then got distracted with PhD, motherhood and work and didn't make any for a number of years until I went back to it only to have another string of failures which left me despondent.

This year, just before xmas, I stumbled across a recipe for peanut butter fudge (I will put a link to it below) which convinced me to pull my recipe out and have another go. A key factor in this was that the recipe says to submerge the pan in a sink partially filled with cold water to cool it more quickly, and it also called for an electric hand mixer instead of `beating with a wooden spoon'. I don't know why these things had never occurred to me - they seem obvious now - but the reasons for my many failures had been because I hadn't had the patience to a) wait for the fudge to cool before beating it and, b) most importantly,  beat the fudge for as long as it needed.

Once I had had a few successful attempts at my basic recipe (which I will post at a later date) I decided to experiment a little with different fats, and the result of this is my coconut fudge. I have used pink food colouring but you could leave it as is for a lovely white coconut colour, and you could also add some desiccated coconut to the top of it for extra flavour and for decoration.  You don't need to add any artificial flavours as the coconut taste really comes through from the coconut oil.

Ingredients:

450g sugar

50g light corn syrup (or golden syrup if you don't mind the colour being less white)

100g coconut oil

175ml double cream

75ml whole fat milk

Method:

1) Fill your sink with a few inches of cold water and line a loaf tin or small 8" square tin with greaseproof paper (or use a silicone mould).

2) Add all the ingredients to a pan (preferably a heavy bottomed one if you have one but a normal pan is fine so long as you stir lots) on a low heat and stir as the oil melts and the sugar is dissolved.

3) When it starts to boil keep the heat low and wipe down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to make sure there are no stray sugar crystals. This is really important because - as I learnt the hard way - a stray sugar crystal will, given the chance, re-crystalise the batch so you lose the lovely creamy texture. I keep a glass of water with a pastry brush and my thermometer next to me as I work when making fudge. Keep boiling and stirring until the fudge reached a soft ball stage. This is, temperature wise, between 113C-116C (235F-240F). If you don't have a thermometer you can drop a little mixture into a glass of cold water. If it dissolves quickly it isn't ready, but if it forms stands/balls that when taken from the glass can be moulded and keep their shape then it is ready. I heat to 115C then, once it hits this temperature, pop the pan in the sink (being careful not to get water in the pan) and leave it for a few mins to cool down.

4) After it has been left for a good 5-10 mins, use a spatula to scoop the fudge mixture into a bowl and then, with a hand mixer, beat until it begins to thicken. This is the hardest part to get right and I often under or over beat slightly. The main thing is to beat until you can feel the mixture is thicker (and therefore harder to beat) and that when you lift the mixer out of the pan (turn it off first!) the trace of the drops from the mixer takes a good few seconds to sink back in. Once it has thickened scrape it into the loaf tin and leave to set in the fridge.

5) Once it has set for a few hours (or overnight) cut into squares. Keep in a sealed container (or gift bags) in the fridge.

Light corn syrup can, in the UK (where I am) be bought on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000BMNOAA?keywords=light%20corn%20syrup&qid=1451904342&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

and a cheap digital thermometer can be obtained from eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181820424418

The Peanut Butter fudge recipe that inspired me to get going again was this one:

http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/peanut-butter-fudge/