Who doesn’t love fudge? The ultimate naughty treat, basically a combination of fat and sugar, is utterly irresistible, well it certainly is in this house! I have a chocolate fudge on my site but i’ve really been wanting to make a perfectly smooth and creamy vanilla fudge, just like those ones you buy in postcard adorned boxes in the West Country.
Having done seeming hours of research it was hard to find a ‘friendly’ version that doesn’t contain a dairy-free condensed milk. Besides having none in, I really wanted a recipe that could be whipped up with ingredients that were already in the larder/fridge. I also wanted to avoid coconut cream as I think it imparts too strong a flavour unless you’re making a coconut variety. But then again, I wanted a smooth creamy finish so it needed to have some creamy addition along with the sugar and margarine.
As often is the right place, I turned to The Guardian and found Felicity Cloakes recipe for the ultimate fudge which features cream, Demerara sugar and golden syrup. Now, those are staple ingredients. We started experimenting and this ended up as the basis for this ‘friendly version’. The Demerara sugar gives a wonderful depth of flavour and the whipping oat cream gives the silkiest, creamiest finish. It may take a good 5-10 minutes of rigorous stirring, but the arm work out is definitely worth it, both for upper arm strength and the resulting divine fudge! I hope you enjoy the results as much as we do – we love it so much that i made two batches in a week!
Fabulous Vanilla Fudge
(Dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, soya-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan)
100g dairy-free margarine
550g demerara sugar
200g golden syrup
350ml Oatly whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp flaky sea salt
1. Melt the margarine, sugar, syrup and cream together over a low heat until all the sugar crystals have dissolved
2. Turn up the heat and bring to a rolling boil. Heat, stirring now and then, until it reaches 116 degrees Centigrade.
3. Turn off the heat, stir in the vanilla and slat and then beat vigorously for 5-10 minutes until the fudge thickens from a liquid to a thick paste. The colour will change to a pale brown fudge colour
4. For into a baking tin lined with non-stick parchment and leave to set. This takes an hour or so as you want it to be fully set before attempting to cut into bite sized cubes.
5. For variety, try topping it which chopped dark chocolate as the bitter chocolate contrasts wonderfully with the sweet smooth fudge.
