Honey Peanut Butter Fudge or Caramel

I regularly (honestly, at least once a week) make a batch of fudge. I eat it all myself. It is high in sugar and wonderful and I have a sweet tooth and I do not watch my diet (thus endeth the confession part of this post). Now that I have bees and lots of honey, I thought maybe my fudge addiction could be made better (in what sense of the word I’m not sure) with honey.

So I substituted 1/2 of the sugar with honey and gave it a try. The result is a much creamier and softer concoction than I’m used to (I make my fudge very hard, much more than any I’ve ever bought at a store). The first batch of honey fudge tasted just like the gooey caramel you get in a Mars Bar. The 2nd batch (I cooked it a little longer) was firmer, more like a piece of caramel you can buy wrapped in clear plastic. It’s different than my normal fudge in texture and in taste. Different, not worse or better. Another addiction to add to my list.

Here’s my honey peanut butter fudge recipe – it couldn’t be simpler and takes about 10 minutes to make:

1) Put into a deep pot:

– 1 cup milk
– 1 cup sugar
– 1 cup honey (or 2 cups sugar and no honey for my normal recipe)
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder

2) Place the pot on a medium heat (I use the smallest burner on my gas stove and turn it to high – I’m not a patient cook) and let it simmer.

3) Fudge (and other sugary milky sweets) will boil up really high in the pan than sink down. When it sinks down, it’s starting to get close to being ready.

4) Cook until soft ball stage (I imagine it’s easy to find out what temp that is). You can determine soft ball stage by dropping a bit of the cooking fudge into a glass of cold water. If you can reach in and pick it out as a single soft ball, it’s done. If it disintegrates, keep cooking. If it cracks, you’ve made honey brittle.

5) Turn off stove and add a tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of peanut butter to the fudge. Stir like mad until both melt.

6) Move the pot to a water bath (standing water in the bottom of your sink) and stir like mad some more until the fudge just starts to thicken.

7) Pour into a greased heat-proof tray.

8) Let stand to cool.

Whether you spoon it out in gooey dollops, slice off beautiful squares or break your fudge into hard pieces (depending on how firm your batch turns out) the taste is sweet and creamy and just plain old Nirvana.

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