Now, I know we all think that of our families. We have these quirks that set every single family across the world apart, whether it's a tradition for Christmas that makes you roll your eyes and sigh when you're a teenager, or a weekly ritual featuring awful dance moves from your Dad, or a crazy Uncle story at every reunion. In my family, we sing. Not just Christmas carols, but showtunes in the summertime. We have a beautiful arrangement of prayers that my Dad set to music (three part harmony no less) that we sing before meals when we're together as a whole family. We have an UNO tournament every year. In my immediate family, we cut down our own tree each Christmas, and eat Cracker Barrel on the way home. We watch both the Patrick Stewart and the George C. Scott versions of A Christmas Carol. J. and I watch every Christmas episode of our favorite television shows over the course of the season. My mom collects nativities, and sets aside all of the little Baby Jesus-es and on Christmas morning, we put them back in thei respective mangers.
But I think the tradition which most sets apart my family from others is our Thanksgiving candy-making. My Mom has this to say on the subject: In 1932, Carolyn Morgan Guion attempted to make chocolate candies. She was less than impressed with the results. The chocolates were all gray and not really very tasty. Determined to figure it out, Carrie responded to an ad for a chocolate dipper so that she could learn how to do it properly. She told the owner of the Nut House (aptly named), that she didn't have any experience, but that she was a fast learner. This turned out to be very true! Not long after this, Carrie and her husband, Roy, and their eight year old son Robert, began to make great quantities of candy to sell to earn some extra money during the Great Depression. After the depression ended, Carrie and Roy (and most definitely Robert) swore off selling candy, and began to make it only to give away as gifts. Robert grew up and married Emily in 1947. In about 1958 they decided to start making candy, too (though the beginning was pretty rough!). Robert and Emily's five kids, including their youngest Judy, and her husband Eric and their children, Wesley (12), Emily (19) and Heather and her partner, J., have continued and built upon the traditions, so that we are now "Four Generations in Chocolate."
What this means for us as a family is that each Thanksgiving, much of the Guion Family packs into my Grandparent's house, and spends the week making what this year was 200+ pounds of homemade, hand dipped chocolates. If you combine our total with that of the two family units unable to make it for Thanksgiving, it would top 300 pounds. We make over 20 varieties of fudges, caramels, cremes, truffles, and toffees to share with our coworkers, friends, and in-laws.
You know how everyone talks about Black Friday? I can honestly say that I've never even so much as been out of the house on Black Friday, I spend it up to my elbows in melted chocolate. And I wouldn't have it any other way. And so today, I'm going to share with you one of our recipes, complete with dipping tutorial. If you, like me and so many other twenty-somethings, are strapped for cash this holiday season, this makes a lovely, heartfelt, personal gift.
Chocolate Fudge
2.5 Pound Batch
Equipment needed:
A good candy thermometer
A heavy bottomed saucepan
Something on which to work the fudge, preferably a marble slab (if dipping)
If using marble slab, something with which to contain the fudge before working (see pictures below)
A cookie sheet
Wax Paper
Ingredients
2 Pounds Sugar
5 Tablespoons Cocoa
5 Tablespoons Karo
3/4 Cups Milk (Do not use cream)
1/4 Pound Butter (plus a little)
1/2 Teaspoon Sucrovert (If dipping the candy)
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Stir all ingredients except butter together until well mixed, continue stirring until mixture begins to boil. STOP STIRRING. DO NOT TOUCH THAT SPOON TO THAT MIXTURE, NO SIR, DON'T DO IT. If you do, it will get grainy, and no one wants to eat grainy fudge. Cook until the mixture hits 238 degrees.
Pour onto marble slab spread with the 1/4 pound (plus a little) of butter, or pour into a shallow pan.
Let it cool a bit, and add sucrovert (for dipped candy) and vanilla. Work it with a spatula (if on marble slab) or begin to beat it with a wooden spoon (if in shallow pan) until it stiffens, and begins to lose its gloss. At this time, it can be spread into a pan to be given away if you are not dipping it. If you are dipping it, roll it into bite sized pieces and place the balls on a tray covered with wax paper.
Notes:
Sucrovert is the ingredient which turns sugar from a solid into a liquid, making for beautifully creamy candy once dipped. It takes a few days to kick in, and doesn't affect the flavor of the fudge at all.
Having an accurate candy thermometer is key. This year, in the Guion Clan Candy Kitchen, our thermometer went a little crazy, and in the course of one day went from being one degree off, to ten degrees off. This does not make fudge. This, if it is showing to be ten degrees higher than the actual temperature, makes ice cream topping. If it is claiming to be ten degrees lower than the actual temperature of the mixture, makes some odd not-quite-fudge-not-quite-taffy mixture which we have determined to be "Faffy" and is not entirely edible, and certainly not worth dipping. Please see illustrations below.
Dipping Tutorial
There is no singular way to dip chocolates. Over time, each dipper in my family has established their own methods, their own ways of picking up the candy, covering it in chocolate, putting it down. We use different fingers to make the signs on top, place the completed candy in different places on the wax-covered sheets, and even make nests in our chocolate in a multitude of ways. So what I will outline below is just my method, you'll have to establish your own over time!
First, and this may sound weird, make sure the room in which you are dipping is no warmer than 70 degrees, and preferably no cooler than 65. The chocolate starts acting weird if you go outside of those parameters. Butter a cookie sheet, and have a tray with wax paper ready on which to place the completed candy. Ladle melted chocolate onto the sheet, and work the chocolate with your primary hand until it has cooled, not so much that it is beginning to harden, but enough that it doesn't feel warm to the touch any more. This is done in order to ensure that the chocolate doesn't speckle or bloom, because while it doesn't taste any different, grey, streaky chocolate doesn't look terribly appetizing. If you're not sure, streak the wax paper with a swipe of plain chocolate and see if it cools without turning any strange colors.
When it is cooled, pick up a piece undipped fudge with the non-chocolate-working hand. Place it in the chocolate, and pick it up in your chocolate hand and roll it around in your fingers, making sure it is coated all the way around. Set it gently down on the wax paper sheet, taking care to keep extra chocolate in your hand and not on the piece, and if you are making a sign on top, do so. If not, try to take the excess chocolate and swing it around the piece so there are no globs, and it's as smooth as possible.
If this is your first time dipping, it may not go perfectly. It may not even go well. The chocolate may leak, it may speckle, it may look absolutely weird. Keep at it! It takes a long time to perfect, and even in our family where we begin dipping from practically birth we have days where the chocolate just doesn't do what we want it to do.
Allow to cool and harden. Consume and enjoy.
