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Our fudge is made the old fashioned way in a copper kettle, on a marble slab table from a recipe that dates back to 1887. Steve Colwell, owner and chocolatier, starts by weighing the ingredients on an old fashioned freight scale in the back room. The main ingredients are half and half, chocolate liquor and, of course, lots of sugar! The secret recipe has been carefully guarded for more than a century. Next, he wheels the copper kettle on a cart over to the fudge making area where he them puts it on a stove made specially to fit the round kettle.
Steve stirs the fudge as it cooks until it reaches a specific temperature. Fudge is extremely temperature sensitive. If you cook it too high, it will be hard. If it is cooked too low, it will not set up and turn into fudge. The thermometer he uses is a highly specialized candy thermometer. It is not like the candy thermometers that people use at home to make holiday goodies. Each flavor of fudge must be cooked to an exact terperature that varies from batch to batch depending on a variety of factors including humidity and air temperature inside our store. If there is one key factor to creating a perfect batch of fudge, temperature is it! This is also the trickiest part of the entire process.
When the fudge reaches exactly the right temperature, we pour it into a frame on the marble table. The frame is made of stainless steel bars that are used to contain the fudge while it is in a liquid state and prevent it from spilling off of the table.
Steve lets the fudge cool on the table for about ten minutes. This gives him time to wash the pot and throw together the next batch. He also gathers his nuts, marshmallows, or peanut butter, depending on what flavor this batch will be. This cooling period gives the fudge time to thicken up enough for Steve to be able to control it on the table.
He takes the bars off and begins to use his long paddle to stir, mix and toss the gooey fudge. he flips the fudge for around 15 minutes to break down the grains of sugar and cool the fudge. The breaking down of the grains of sugar is very important because that's what makes the fudge creamy, not gritty or grainy. The creaminess is what sets our fudge apart from other fudge you may have had. This part is fun to watch.
As the fudge cools and the grains of sugar are broken down, it begins to set up and thicken up. At a certain point the fudge makes a very slight change in color and consistency that can only be recognized by a trained chocolatier.
Steve then switches to a small hand paddle and starts to shape the fudge into a loaf. The fudge makes a pretty dramatic change during this time and over the course of a just a few minutes it transforms from a malleable glob of chocolaty material to a solid loaf of delicious fudge.
The final and most loved part of the fudge making process is cutting off the end piece and passing out samples to the lucky crowd who has gathered to watch Steve make another loaf of his truly fantastic fudge!
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