Neighbor's Recipe: Fabulous fudge

Fudge is everyone's favorite.

Chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge, maple fudge, fudge with walnuts, fudge with pecans, fudge with cookie crumbs. It just doesn't matter.

Kathy Wilson has just the fudge to thrill almost anyone's taste buds.

Selling under the brand name Kat's Country Fudge, she is in the enviable position of having to decide whether she should expand now or later.

Kathy's journey to successful candy chef began early. "I've always loved to cook fudge. I've loved to cook — period — since I was a kid." And she was spurred on when tragedy struck: She lost her husband in a plane crash four years ago.

She said that it took her two years to recover "slightly," but then she decided it was time to move ahead. "I'd been with Raley's (grocery store) for 18 years, and they have a program that you can retire after 50, so at 51, I retired," Kathy said. "I decided to combine what I love to do with what I can do to make a living. I thought, 'If it works, good. If it doesn't, I'll survive.'"

A Sutter County native, Kathy was born on a Live Oak cattle ranch, and she hasn't moved. "About six years after we'd been married, my husband and I bought the place right next to my folks. Been there ever since."

The fudge business started off with a chance meeting at a United Way wine soiree and took off from there. She now sells her fudge at Stephen's Farmhouse, Sunsweet Growers, Garden Gate Florist, The Wishing Well in Gridley, and she said her candy will soon be on the shelves at Granzella's in Williams.

"I came up with the name 'Kat' because my grandkids call me Grandma Katkat. The oldest one at first couldn't say Grandmother Kathy, but somehow got Katkat out," she explained. "We decided that Grandmother Katkat's Country Fudge was a little long, so we shortened it to just Kat's Country Fudge."

Kathy said the fun for her is developing new fudge flavors. It must be, because she now has more than 20 — plus divinity and penuche.

One of her more unique candies is her camo fudge, which has swirled light and dark fudge with a hint of green mint.

Kathy said started the camo flavor for duck hunters, then thought it look so military-like that she's even packaged some with a flag on top.

"The pumpkin one was probably my hardest (flavor to develop). I had a heck of a time getting it right because of the raw pumpkin in it. I had a lot of runny fudge, but I finally got it."

Of course, not every new fudge flavor works out right on the first try, Kathy explained. "If they're just plain rejects, they go in the garbage, but the almost-good-enough (candy) I take to Encinal (Elementary) School, where my grandkids go. The teachers and the staff there are very helpful. And when I was getting the pumpkin fudge toned, I took a lot of it into the Raley's lunch room. I just hate to throw things a way.

"My family are my taste-testers. I don't like peanut butter at all, so they tasted that out for me. And I'm not really crazy about mint or espresso. My family's been very helpful."

Kathy said that family includes her son, Casey, who's a personal trainer in Roseville. "We just say, 'I get 'em fat, and he slims 'em down.'" Her daughters are Kary Aldridge, Yuba-Sutter United Way director, and Jen Wilson, who lives in West Sacramento and works for Holt of California, a Caterpillar dealership. She describes her grandchildren — Kyra, Neirah, Drew and Jack — as "the joys of my life."

The fudge recipe Kathy decided to demonstrate for me in the Stephen's Ranch kitchen, where she does her cooking, is called Splenda Chocolate Chunk Fudge.

As she spooned the marshmallow crème into the butter and chocolate chips, Kathy pointed out, "This is not a sugar-free recipe, but a low-sugar recipe."

She said she only uses high quality chips that are 60 to 65 percent chocolate, because "it tends to deepen the taste."

Setting that mixture aside for the moment, Kathy poured the evaporated milk and Splenda into a pan, put it on the stove and brought it to a boil. Kathy said it's important to stir constantly throughout the six-minute boiling time, or the mixture will scorch.

Once that's done, it's time to pour it into the marshmallow, butter and chips. Kathy explained that, as a rule, you shouldn't scrape the sides of the pan because during the cooking process, the sugar can collect on the sides of the pan, and you don't want that.

"During the cooking process, if the pan has gotten sugared up on the sides, you don't want to pull that into your candy. That's true with any kind of candy, but it's especially true with hard candies, because you'll get a sugar coating.

"After you've incorporated your liquid mixture into your butter, chips and marshmallow, add your teaspoon of vanilla. This is also the time, if you want to make another flavor, to add it, but you should always use about a teaspoon of vanilla in addition to the flavoring."

She only stirred the mixture a little bit before taking it to the electric mixer. Kathy let the mixer do its work for about two minutes, or until the fudge-to-be was fluffy. Fluffy means you will end up with a smoother candy.

After using the mixer, she stirred the fudge a little more by hand because she's found that when she uses sugar, the chocolate chips completely melt, but when she uses Splenda, the chips don't melt completely. This doesn't faze her because she leaves the chips chunky and calls the product Chocolate Chunk Splenda Fudge. "I think it tastes really good with the chunks of chocolate.

"I've found virtually no difference in using sugar or Splenda, which substitutes really well for sugar," Kathy explained. "The Splenda tends to be a little bit lighter than the solidness of the fudge made with sugar."

Kathy also said that if you want the chips melted, then melt them prior to adding them to butter and marshmallow.

One of the things she pointed out was that if your fudge turns out grainy, it could be because either it didn't get up to the proper temperature or it wasn't mixed thoroughly.

The last step is to pour it into a pan to set up. "At home, this is the time everyone is saying: 'I'll lick that beater.'

"It takes a little while, about two hours, to set up. If you want it to be really hard, stick it in the fridge."

As an aside to those who want even fewer calories, she said: "If it's really important for you to be watching the sugar, you can take out the marshmallow crème and use whipped cream cheese instead. It works really well and adds a nice taste to your fudge, but (the candy) doesn't last as long if it's not refrigerated."

• Splenda Chocolate Chunk Fudge

Ingredients

2 12-ounce packages chocolate chips

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 7-ounce jar marshmallow crème

1 13-ounce can evaporated milk

4 1/2 cups Splenda

1 tablespoon vanilla

Chopped nuts, if desired

Putting it together

Place chocolate chips, butter and marshmallow crème in mixing bowl.

In a large, heavy-bottom saucepan, bring evaporated milk and Splenda to a boil. Stirring constantly, reduce heat, but keep the heat high enough to maintain a rolling boil. Cook for six minutes. Keep stirring, or mixture will scorch.

Pour milk mixture over chocolate-butter-marshmallow mixture in the bowl. Mix, using an electric mixer, until it holds its shape. Beat in vanilla. Stir in nuts, if desired.

Pour fudge into greased 10- by 15-inch pan. Refrigerate to harden.

Cut and store in an airtight container. Fudge will keep for a few weeks (if you hide it well enough).

Variation: Use white chocolate instead of the chocolate and add 11⁄2 teaspoons of mapleline along with the vanilla.

• Old Fashioned Divinity (Grandmother Mildred Taylor's recipe)

Ingredients

3 cups sugar

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup light corn syrup

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

Chopped nuts, if desired

Putting it together

Place sugar, water and corn syrup in a pan over low to medium heat and stir only until sugar is dissolved.

Cook until temperature reaches soft-ball stage (between 235 to 240 degrees).

Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff (about two minutes).

Continue beating egg whites and slowly pour in half the syrup. Continue beating while heating the other half of the syrup to hard-ball stage (between 250 to 265 degrees).

Slowly add remaining syrup to egg white mixture. Add vanilla and beat until thickened.

Add nuts if desired.

• Quick Caramel

Ingredients

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)

Putting it together

Put all ingredients into a microwave bowl that is big enough for boiling over.

Cook on high for 60 seconds. Stir. Cook on high for 90 seconds. Stir.

Continue cooking in 90-second intervals, stirring well between each interval, until mixture's temperature reaches 230 degrees for soft caramel or 240 degrees for slightly firmer caramel. The mixture will look and smell like caramel by then.

Pour into a butter dish, but be careful — it's very hot.

Cool and cut into small squares.

Makes about 1 pound.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Hollis at 741-2400 or jhollis@appeal-democrat.com.