Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipe - Tasty Ever After (2024)

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This old fashioned Penuche Fudge recipe is a delicious, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth candy made with just 5 ingredients! Slightly adapted from a Yankee Magazine recipe.

Penuche Fudge: a delectable, buttery, creamy, melt-in-yo-mouth, candy made with sugar, sugar, and more sugar.

Plus some milk, a little butter and pure vanilla extract.

It tastes like absolute heaven but will make you go into a three day sugar coma if you eat more than two pieces.

That is the actual Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition, no kidding.

Go look it up. I'll wait right here while eating a piece of this fudge.

What is Penuche Fudge?

Penuche fudge came into my life when I first moved to the New England area.

My first thought was that the taste is very similar to pralines, but the texture is different.

This fudge is softer, smoother, and creamier than any praline I've ever eaten.

I was curious, to say the least, about this newfound sweet of mine and had never heard of it or encountered it back home in South Florida.

To be honest, I don't remember having any kind of fudge in the Sunshine State.

I guess fudge just ain't a Florida thang.

A fudge recipe using real milk

Back to this delicious penchue fudge recipe, while searching for a recipe, I was determined to find one that didn't use canned condensed milk.

Not that I have anything against condensed milk. Well, I kind of do, if it's not an all-natural brand.

For this recipe, I wanted to use the fresh humanely raised, organic, grass-fed raw milk that I get from a family owned dairy farm down the street from me.

Doing a little internet research (thanks Google!), I found this recipe from Yankee Magazine that uses regular milk.

It's a fantastic recipe and the only thing I changed was leave out the pecans.

Nuts or no nuts in fudge

Please note, I love pecans to death, but I like penuche fudge that's made with walnuts or just left plain.

The reason why is because that's the way I've eaten it in New England and I'm partial to it.

This is the best old fashioned penuche fudge recipe and is also very easy to make.

I did notice the Yankee Magazine instructions left out how the mixture can seize up on you quicker than you can say "WTF".

Which is exactly what I said when it happened to me.

Seriously, you will be standing there having a good old time, stirring the cooled down fudge and minding your own business, when all of a sudden...

BOOM!! It will become rock hard in a matter of a nanosecond.

Keep that in mind as you are a-stirring.

Hope you all have a wonderful Merry Christmas week and make lots of Penuche Fudge!

It's wonderful to eat as you're sitting in front of a fire, sipping on hot chocolate, and waiting on Santa to show up.

Did you like thispenuche fudge recipe? Don't forget to leave a comment and share with friends and family.

RECIPE

Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipe - Tasty Ever After (5)

Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipe

This old fashioned penuche fudge recipe is a delicious, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth candy made with just 5 ingredients!

5 from 36 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 36 pieces

Calories: 79kcal

Author: Karrie | Tasty Ever After

Ingredients

  • 1 cup light brown sugar packed
  • 2 cups granulated white sugar
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

optional: 1 cup pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped

    US Customary - Metric

    Instructions

    • In a 3-quart saucepan combine both sugars and the milk and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, while stirring constantly. Once it reaches a boil, stop stirring the mixture (so fudge doesn't turn gritty).

      1 cup light brown sugar, 2 cups granulated white sugar, 1 cup whole milk

    • Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking mixture,without stirring, until it reaches the soft-ball stage, 236F/113C degrees.

      **If mixture is stirred after boiling and before cooling down, large sugar crystals will form and fudge will be gritty**

    • Remove saucepan from the heat and add the butter and vanilla, but DO NOT STIR. Let the mixture cool without stirring until it reaches 110F/43C degrees. Start checking the temperature at 20 minutes and then check every 5 minutes, until it reaches 110F/43C.

      3 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

    • While the mixture is cooling, butter an 8-inch-square pan. Set aside.

    • Once the mixture has cooled down, beat with a wooden spoon until the butter is fully incorporated and mixture starts to thicken. Quickly pour the fudge into the buttered pan before it becomes too solid.

      ***If using optional 1 cup chopped nuts, quickly stir them into the fudge right before pouring into the prepared pan***

    • Let cool completely before cutting into 1-inch squares. Store leftovers in a covered container in the refrigerator.

    Recipe Notes & Tips:

    • Slightly adapted from Yankee Magazine's Pecan Penuche Fudge recipe
    • The fudge is perfectly cooked when a small amount of the mixture is dropped into a bowl of cold water, forming a ball that can be easily picked up and flattened between the fingers

    Nutrition Facts

    Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipe

    Amount Per Serving

    Calories 79Calories from Fat 9

    % Daily Value*

    Fat 1g2%

    Cholesterol 3mg1%

    Sodium 4mg0%

    Potassium 17mg0%

    Carbohydrates 17g6%

    Sugar 17g19%

    Vitamin A 40IU1%

    Calcium 13mg1%

    Iron 0.1mg1%

    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

    Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @tastyeverafter or tag #tastyeverafter

    Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipe - Tasty Ever After (2024)

    FAQs

    What is the difference between fudge and penuche? ›

    Penuche often has a tannish color, and is lighter than regular fudge. It is formed by the caramelization of brown sugar; thus, its flavor is said to be reminiscent of caramel. Nuts, especially pecans, are often added to penuche for texture, frequently in the making of penuche candies.

    What is the secret to perfect fudge? ›

    Valuable tips for successful fudge
    • Don't stir during cooking. Fudge can be cooked on the stove or in the microwave. ...
    • Avoid crystallization. During cooking, sugar crystals can stick to the sides of the pan. ...
    • Let cool before beating. After being cooked, the sugar must crystallize again to create fudge. ...
    • Beat the mixture.

    Why is my old fashioned fudge not hardening? ›

    The most common culprit behind unset fudge is inaccurate temperature control. If the sugar mixture hasn't reached the correct temperature, your fudge won't set. Ensure you use a reliable candy thermometer and follow temperature guidelines meticulously to achieve the desired consistency.

    What is the secret to smooth fudge that is not gritty? ›

    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.

    What does penuche mean in Spanish? ›

    Etymology. Mexican Spanish panocha raw sugar, from Spanish, ear of maize, ultimately from Latin panicula panicle — more at panicle.

    Why is my 3 ingredient fudge not setting? ›

    Why won't my 3 ingredient fudge set? This often happens when the condensed milk and chocolate chip mixture isn't hot enough to start. Everything must be completely melted before it is transferred to the pan to cool.

    How do you firm up homemade fudge? ›

    The amount of time you cook fudge directly affects its firmness. Too little time and the water won't evaporate, causing the fudge to be soft. Conversely, cook it too long and fudge won't contain enough water, making it hard with a dry, crumbly texture.

    What makes fudge softer? ›

    Undercooked. This fudge was cooked until the temperature reached only108 °C (226 °F). At this temperature, the sugar is not concentrated enough... there is too much leftover water in the syrup and the resulting fudge is soft.

    What temperature should fudge be cooked at? ›

    Stir the ingredients to dissolve the sugar until the mixture comes to a boil. If your recipe uses milk, stirring will keep the mixture from curdling. But once it reaches about 236–238 degrees F/113–114 degrees C (the "soft-ball" stage), do not stir it or even shake the pan.

    How long do you boil fudge to get to soft ball stage? ›

    How long does it take to make fudge:
    1. about 18 min to reach boiling.
    2. about 40 minutes to reach soft ball stage.
    3. 60 minutes to cool.
    4. 28 minutes to beat in a KitchenAid (your time for this may vary)
    5. 4 hours to set.

    Why did my fudge turn to toffee? ›

    If your fudge has a texture like soft toffee, it could be due to overcooking, using too much sugar or butter, or not cooking it to the right temperature.

    Why is it called penuche? ›

    Some folks say that the name originates from a Mexican Spanish word for sugar, while others argue the fudge is named after a 1920s Boston Bruins player, Mark Penuche. Penuche stands apart from its fudge relatives mainly because it is based on brown rather than white sugar, offering a unique caramel flavor.

    Is caramel the same as fudge? ›

    What is fudge? While caramel usually contains just one key ingredient, fudge is made from a perfectly balanced mixture of sugar, butter, and milk. Plus, it's not heated as high — around 115 degrees Celsius.

    What makes fudge different? ›

    Although fudge often contains chocolate, fudge is not the same as chocolate. Chocolate is a mix of cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sometimes sugar and other flavorings and is hard and brittle. Fudge is a mixture of sugar, dairy and flavorings that is cooked and cooled to form a smooth, semi-soft confection.

    What do Americans call fudge? ›

    Over here fudge is solid, a light brown colour and is made from cooking sugar and butter together. Here in America, fudge is like this but (almost) always has chocolate too. (We often use the terms "fudge" and "chocolate fudge" interchangeably.)

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