Fudge facts for kids

Russian fudge

Fudge is a yummy, sweet candy that's a bit like a soft cake. It often tastes like rich chocolate. To make fudge, people mix sugar, butter, milk, and chocolate together. It's a popular treat enjoyed by many.

How Fudge Gets Its Smooth Texture

Fudge being cooled and shaped on a marble slab

Making smooth fudge is a bit like a science experiment! When you cook sugar and water, it forms a special solution. The goal is to make sure the sugar forms tiny, tiny crystals. If the crystals get too big, the fudge will feel grainy in your mouth instead of smooth.

Preventing Large Crystals

To keep fudge smooth, people often add things like milkfat (from butter or milk) and corn syrup. Corn syrup has different kinds of sugars, like glucose and fructose. These sugars help stop the main sugar (sucrose) from forming big crystals too quickly. The fat also helps keep the crystals small.

Cooking and Cooling Fudge

The temperature you cook fudge to is very important. Cooking it hotter means more sugar dissolves and more water evaporates. This makes the fudge thicker. After cooking, hot fudge is sometimes poured onto a cool marble slab. This helps it cool down evenly and get its perfect shape and smooth texture.

Some recipes use marshmallows as a sweetener. Marshmallows already have a soft, chewy structure. This helps the fudge stay soft and smooth without needing to control the sugar crystals as much.

Hot Fudge

Hot fudge is a thick, chocolate-flavored sauce. In places like the United States and Canada, it's often warmed up and poured over ice cream. It's a favorite topping for sundaes and parfaits. It tastes a lot like regular chocolate fudge but is thinner, so it can be drizzled.

Related pages

• Toffee

Images for kids

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  Assorted fudges

See also

In Spanish: Dulce de azúcar para niños