I'm new to candy making, so perhaps fudge isn't the best place to start, but I do like fudge!

Anyway, I really like that the fudge recipe on this site is very detailed, but it's not quite working out for me.  In particular, setting the temperature of the stove is vexing me.  The recipe states medium-low, but the mixture isn't ever going to boil at medium-low.

Another recipe I found on the Food Network page (from an episode of Alton Brown, which I have on good authority is an excellent source of cooking information) suggests boiling at medium-high and then lowering the temperature to medium-low.  Of course, once I did that, the mixture just started to cool and eventually stopped boiling.

Lesson learned: just cook it at medium-high heat.  But I'm really curious why both these recipes call for medium-low heat.  How important is it the cooking temperature anyway?

The upshot to all this is that my attempts so far have turned basically solid by the time they cool down enough to begin stirring.  My best result so far I was able to more or less kneed for a little while.  It's soft enough to eat even, though nobody would want to.

My hypothesis now is that I've cooked the syrup for too long because I spent so much time adjusting the temperature.  Even though I cooked it to the right temperature (for the soft-ball stage), perhaps I still boiled off too much water.

I'm going to give it another shot to see if that was the problem, but does anybody else have insight into why my fudge turns so solid so quickly?  I'd appreciate any help you can offer.  Thanks!

Thanks for the tips and for the encouragement!  I used a heavier bottom pot and adjusted the heat so that the syrup heated slowly.

The result was very worth it.  That is some good fudge!  Thanks again.

--Justin

I agree with kathyk. You have to adjust everything to your stove. They give you a idea of the heat range but not temperature. If recipe gives temperature try usin thermometer to see what settings your stove is set at.

Candy making is something that I always never do very well, my mother often yells at me!!

I think some people are right about each stove being different tempatures. You have to adjust recipe to own stove.

Fudge is really hard to make for me anyway.  I have always had trouble trying to get it to hold up correctly.

It does sound like you cooked it on too high of heat.

i agree