Homemade Peanut Butter Fudge

Feb 20

Making peanut butter fudge at home is incredibly simple. There’s a softball cooking process that is a little involved. But if you have a thermometer, it is not complicated. Below is a table for softball cooking temperatures that varies depending on your altitude

Softball cooking temperature table:

Soft Ball Stage at sea level: 234 F to 240 F

Water boils at 212. F at sea level.

Subtract boiling point of water at sea level and your boiling point of water for your altitude. That number gets subtracted from the middle number for softball stage to get your temperature target

EX: For me, I live at 5000 ft. 212 minus 202 equals equals 10 degrees.

10 degrees subtracted from 237 is 227, which is my target softball temperature for my altitude

Boiling Point of Water

Altitude in feet Degrees

500 ft 211

1000 ft 210

2000 ft 208

3000 ft 206

4000 ft 204

5000 ft 202

6000 ft 200

7000 ft 198

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter 113 g

16 oz brown sugar 456 g

1/2 c milk 118 ml

3/4 c (6 oz) peanut butter

1 t vanilla 5 ml or 1/2 t 2.5 ml almond extract

3-1/2 (14 oz) 398 g cup confectioners sugar

Tools needed:

Candy thermometer

Wire wisk

Scale

Food processor if making homemade peanut butter

5 qt stock pot

9x9 baking pan

Parchment paper

Procedure:

Make the peanut butter (store bought is also great). I bought pre roasted, salted peanuts. Place peanuts in food processor and blend until completely smooth. This takes around 5 minutes. Weight out your peanut butter or measure out with measuring cup. The rest I use for sandwiches throughout the week!

Weight out your ingredients for consistent results. Shown is the brown sugar, but all ingredients listed are weighed out.

Melt butter in pan, stir in brown sugar and milk. Bring to a boil stirring until it starts boiling. Once it the milk and sugar starts to boil, reduce heat to medium. Secure candy thermometer to side the of the pot. I tap on the bracket to make sure the probe tip does not touch the bottom of the pan. You want at least 1/2 inch space between pan bottom and probe tip. I set my thermometer to desired temperature and wait for the beep! My thermometer beeps when the target temperature is reached.

This process only takes about 5 minutes for the sugar and milk to come up to temperature so don’t leave the kitchen!

Bring to softball temperature (sea level 230-235). Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Be very careful as this is extremely hot!

Add confectioners sugar, beat until smooth. I start by folding in the sugar with a rubber spatula. Once the sugar is mostly incorporated, I mix it with a wooden spoon. If it sets too quickly scald 1/4 c milk adding 1 T at a time.