I would classify this as a refrigerator fudge. It’s not typical in the sense that you don’t have to “table” it but instead boil it and incorporate with white chocolate. It’s stored in the fridge rather than on the counter.
When I began working at the hotel, this fudge was on nearly every menu all year round. On the mignardise plate in the restaurant, for buffet lunch banquets and even the late-night sweet table for weddings.
It’s creamy, insanely sweet and mapley, but it just needed one thing. Walnuts!
Maple walnut is just one of those old timey combinations that emits a sense of nostalgia for me. My dad would buy big vats of maple walnut ice cream when I was a kid and insist it be eaten with a plain, old factory-made cone.
That I would even consider changing this timeless recipe by adding walnuts caused pandemonium at the hotel. I stuck to my guns and it made the menu, but every once in a while, I would still get a request for the fudge sans walnuts.
Yield: 12 Servings (the size or type of mould doesn’t matter so much. Use whatever is convenient.)
Ingredients:
- 100 g maple sugar
- 125 g white granulated sugar
- 50 ml maple syrup
- 100 ml 35% cream
- 60 g glucose
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 150 g good quality white chocolate (I like Callebaut)
- 90 g toasted walnut halves
Procedure:
- Toast the walnuts in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 350°F.
- Line your mould with plastic wrap and set aside.
- Put all ingredients except for the chocolate and nuts into a pot on the stovetop on medium heat. Bring to a boil until you reach 231°F.
- In a separate bowl, pour the mixture over the white chocolate (chopped if using a block) and mix with a spatula until melted and incorporated fully.
- Add the walnuts last and then pour into mould.
- Refrigerate until cool.
- Unmould and use a serrated knife to cut.
*always use walnut halves, not pieces…you will get that nice cross section when cut into it!
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