Salted Caramel Fudge

I got an e-mail from Claire of Claire K Creations about participating in #foodiesecretsanta again. A fun gift exchange she organised, where Australian food bloggers make a treat for 3 other randomly allocated food bloggers. I could not believe it was already that time of year again! You can see my post for #foodiesecretsanta last year here.

I have a confession to make. I was not as organised for it as I was last year. I had a vague idea of making fudge this year, and I'd made a mental note of the deadline for posting the gifts. One afternoon I saw I had a package. I froze and had a moment of panic - had I missed the posting deadline!? I quickly checked my e-mail to thankfully find out I hadn't... but I had 4 days. Was that enough time to see if I can make fudge for the first time? I sure hoped so!

I read recipes and watched videos. I decided I wanted to make caramel fudge. I absolutely love caramel and I didn't think I was ready to try chocolate fudge just yet! After a bit of research, I discovered that there is actually a science to fudge, much like candy-making. I tried a couple of techniques - eyeballing the texture, and even using a candy thermometer! One batch was hard, grainy crumbs. One batch was runny slop.

I finally decided on a technique where I put on a timer and cross my fingers. It seemed to work for me - TWICE! I just hope it's edible enough for my 3 (un?)lucky #foodiesecretsanta recipients!

SALTED CARAMEL FUDGE
The ingredients I decided worked for me are:
1/2 a block of chopped unsalted butter
1 cup dark brown sugar

1 can sweetened condensed milk
150g chopped white chocolate
3-4 tablespoons of golden syrup
2 tablespoons of glucose syrup

First, line a brownie tin with baking paper.
Then chop your white chocolate finely. I liked using Cadbury Dream white chocolate because it's delicately soft and melts easily.
For convenience, use white chocolate chips - although I found these didn't melt as easily.

Place all the ingredients EXCEPT the white chocolate into a large pot.
I feel a large pot is better to provide more surface area of heat.
Stir over low heat until everything is melted and dissolved.

As soon as you see the first bubble when it starts to boil, set your timer to 10 minutes.

Get those muscles working because you must stir constantly during the 10 minutes!
No need to be precise, just keep the caramel moving so that it doesn't burn at the bottom of the pan.
During this time it will gradually thicken.

The texture is right when you can briefly (like 2 seconds) scrape the caramel from the sides of the pot like in this picture.

This is where you'll need to work fast. Immediately remove the pot from the heat then throw in the white chocolate.
Beat it in with all your might! Your aim is to melt all the white chocolate.
This can be difficult as the fudge will cool down quickly and start to set.
This is why chopping the white chocolate is important!
Quickly scrape the contents into your lined brownie tin.
The quicker you work, the easier it will be to spread the fudge into the tin before it becomes too stiff.

After a few minutes, grind some sea salt over the surface.
Pop into the fridge overnight to set the fudge. I left it uncovered to help dry it out.

 Slice into squares. You should get about 60, depending on how big you slice.