Chocolate Peanut Fudge and Peanut Butter Fudge

  

Last week I made two batches of fudge to bring into class on Thursday and to my old high school on Friday.

I made Paula Deen's chocolate dummy fudge with peanuts (instead of pecans, to go with the next batch, you'll see why in a minute!)  It is a wonderfully easy recipe, hence the name, and it is really, really good.

I also wanted to experiment with a more traditional fudge recipe, so I looked on the Food Network website and found a recipe for Peanut Butter Buttermilk fudge.  It isn't the really traditional type made on a marble slab, but it is still boiled sugar and liquid (buttermilk, in this case) brought to soft ball stage.  It was fun!  I've never made candy that has been sugar based, so I've never fiddled with soft ball stage or the others before.  Have I mentioned, I had fun?!  This is really good fudge as well, and really peanut buttery!

The two different fudges have really different textures, and not just because the chocolate fudge had nuts.  The chocolate fudge is creamy and needs to be kept refrigerated or it goes all gooey.  The peanut butter fudge is slightly less creamy and a tad bit dryer.  It doesn't need to be kept in the fridge, though kept it there with the chocolate peanut fudge, because it is much more convenient.

Tomorrow, I'll post how I wrapped these to give as cute little goodies to all the teachers at my old high school!