My Grandma Gwen’s Old-Fashioned Chocolate-Pecan Fudge Is Worth Fighting Over (It’s So Easy)
My Grandma Gwen didn’t leave behind many recipes. As far as I’ve learned from my mom, she was a stereotypical cook for her time, relying heavily on store-bought shortcuts and less on from-scratch recipes. One recipe we do have passed down in the family from her is her famous chocolate fudge. We lost the recipe card for years, never attempting to re-create it in the meantime for fear we wouldn’t do it justice. But while digging around in my parents’ kitchen this summer, I found it lodged in a drawer and decided it was time to bring back the recipe I remember loving every year as a kid.
To be honest, now as an adult who cooks and bakes regularly, the recipe is more wild than I remember (LOL!). For starters, let’s look at the ingredient list: she calls for a whopping 4 cups of sugar, 1 can of evaporated milk, 2 bags of chocolate chips, ½ pound of butter, and 25 large marshmallows. If you’re getting a toothache just from reading that, I get it. But come on, it’s fudge! Fudge is supposed to be an extremely decadent, once-a-year treat.
Preparing the fudge is simple: You bring the sugar and evaporated milk to a boil for 10 minutes in a saucepan, then remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate, butter, and marshmallows and stir until everything is melty and combined. The chocolate and butter melt pretty quickly, but the marshmallows take several minutes, so use your patience here (there’s a lot of ’mallow!).
Once everything is melted and combined, you fold in vanilla extract and a chopped nut of your choice (I used pecans), then, according to Grandma Gwen, you pour the fudge mixture into a buttered pan — but please make your life easier and line the pan with wax paper first! Then it sits in the fridge until firm (I did overnight) before you slice into squares.
The resulting fudge is just as delicious as I remember it, but beware: It’s for extreme chocolate lovers only. And I’m not talking about the dark chocolate kind: This fudge is very sweet, but in a classic old-fashioned way. I’m packaging mine up for my toddler’s teachers (the recipe makes a lot; it’s a great thing to gift!). And I’ll be sure to include a note that says it’s just how Grandma Gwen liked it.
