Fudge

Little Jim's classic fudge recipe. A large heavy bottomed pan is essential for this recipe, as is a high temperature sugar thermometer (unless you have Jim's feel for when the temperature is right). For those of us without a dedicated heavy "toffee" pan the base of a pressure cooker seems to work OK.

Ingredients:

• 450g/1lb granulated sugar
• 280ml/half pint full cream evaporated milk
• 40g/1.5oz butter (or hard baking margarine)
• vanilla essence (or other flavouring eg. mint essence, rum essence)

Instructions:

Prepare a greased tin, approx size 6"x7"x1". Mix together the sugar, milk and fat in a heavy bottomed pan. Heat on a low heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until all of the sugar has dissolved and the mixture no longer feels "gritty".

Turn the heat up to moderate and keep stirring until the thermometer hits "soft ball" at 114.5°C/238°F and the mixture is on a rolling boil. Don't let it burn on the base of the pan! As soon as you hit the required temperature remove from the heat, quickly add the flavouring and start to beat the mixture. Continue beating until the mixture is starting to become too thick to pour - about 8 minutes - then pour into the greased tin and spread out. Leave to cool, then cut into cubes.