Because Austin, TX, is a drought-prone location, most people living here welcome any rain that falls. Lately, though, we’ve had quite a few torrential rain, complete with flooding.
I had planned to make fudge for Halloween, but with all the rain in the area, I decided to not even try. Making any kind of sugar-based confection in rainy or humid weather is like trying to wash skunk off a dog. It can be done, but it’s pretty hard to do. You can try boiling the mixture a little longer so that the temperature rises a couple of degrees above the target temperature, but it’s safer to wait until drier weather comes along. When you pit fudge vs. humidity, you’re just as likely to end up with a delicious ice cream topping than a solid fudge.
Instead, I decided to play with my food. Did you know you can shape fudge just like cookie dough?
Take a couple of pieces of room temperature fudge and warm them up a little more with your hands, just like you would modeling clay. (Use disposable plastic gloves if you want other people to actually eat the fudge when you’re done.) When it’s soft and pliable, go crazy with it. You can push it into molds, roll it out and cut it with small cookie cutters, and sculpt it with your hands or clay sculpting tools. If the fudge gets too warm, refrigerate it for a few minutes to firm it up a bit.
I’m not a fan of the traditional cake pop mix of crumbled cake and frosting, so we’ve even used fudge to make cake pops. I guess we should call them fudge pops.
You can add food coloring to the fudges made with white chocolate if you want a certain color. Don’t add too much or the fudge won’t set up again. To solve the problem, mix the food coloring drops separately in a small dish, use a toothpick to transfer color to a small ball of fudge, and knead it in.
When you’re done, pop your confectionery masterpiece into the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm it up again. Or just eat it!