Aunt Fern’s Fudge

Now here's the queen of secret family recipes. The ladies in my family (the generation above me) hounded my Great Aunt Fern for her stellar fudge recipe for years. She would not budge. It was a secret! Years and years went by before my Grandma was talking about the famous fudge with Fern's sister. Grandma was lamenting the fact that Fern wouldn't give the recipe to her. Fern's dear sister said to Grandma,"I have that recipe. Let me get it for you." And thus ended the days of the secret recipe. :) My mom tweaked this recipe so that she made many variations--Rocky Road (add nuts and marshmallows), Peanut Butter (add peanut butter and butterscotch chips in place of the chocolate chips), and my newest favorite, the one my sister and I tried again this year: White chocolate fudge with caramel.


1 large package semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 ounce)
1 pint jar marshmallow cream
10 ounce bar giradelli chocolate, broken up (this was supposedly the secret ingredient, but I have used other brand of chocolate. My sister loves using Symphony Bars)
--Place these 3 ingredients in a large mixing bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer). Next the hot stuff:
4 ½ cups sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Dash of salt
1 cube butter
--Put these 4 ingredients into a large pan and bring to boil over medium high heat. Stir constantly for 6 minutes (after boil).
Add hot mixture to the mixing bowl with the first ingredients. Stir until melted and smooth (I used my dough hook and mixed on low for this step). You can add 2 cups of chopped nuts at this point if desired.
Press hot mixture into 9x13 pan (lined with greased aluminum foil)
Store tightly wrapped in the refrigerator.