Making our Old Fashioned Fudge
Customers visiting our store are often surprised to learn that we make our own fudge on site. If the timing is right,they sometimes get to see the process in action. Our fudge recipe is top secret, of course, but I can tell you that it all starts as either vanilla or chocolate. I guess there isn’t really anything particularly special about plain chocolate fudge; recipes for that are a dime a dozen. But as Henry John Heinz (you know, the ketchup tycoon) once said, “To do a common thing, uncommonly well, brings success.” Not to brag, but I think our common chocolate and vanilla are done uncommonly well, and our customers seem to agree.
We use a specially designed kettle that cooks the fudge at the perfect temperature while stirring at the same time. You wouldn’t believe how awesome the fudge smells while it cooks–the aroma fills the whole store and seems to pull people inside. The real magic happens when I take the basic chocolate or vanilla and add flavorings, nuts, marshmallows, caramel, or whatever else the recipe calls for to create any of our thirty gourmet flavors. Anyone who sees this step invariably asks how I stay so skinny when I have a job like this; I’ll admit that it can be pretty tempting to lick the bowl clean when I’m done, but fortunately I have just enough willpower not to. I doubt the health department would approve of that anyway.
It takes about an hour to make a twenty pound batch of fudge, plus several more hours to let it cool. When it’s ready we either display it in the store or carefully package it to be shipped out to lucky fudge lovers all over the country. I’ve had many customers tell me that they enjoy giving fudge as a unique gift and seeing it made right in front of them makes it even more special.
If you’re ever in the neighborhood we’d love to have you stop by to watch us make some great homemade fudge. We’ll even be more than happy to give you a sample!