Oh Well...

"Oh, Fudge, A Celebration of America's Favorite Candy"  by Lee Edwards Benning   Henry Holt & Company   303 pages   $19.95

A friend of mine adores chocolate.  Additionally, she's a good cook and one who likes to entertain.  Thus, when I ran across the above at the every Monday Hermosa Beach Book Sale, I got it for her.  I don't like to make candy because it takes forever.  I have a recipe for English toffee that calls for stirring it for five full minutes.  So not up my alley...

As for fudge, I've never used any other recipe than the one found on the back of the jar of Kraft's Marshmallow Creme.   And I haven't even used that recipe for probably 20 years.  Curiosity alone made me open the book.

Listed under "Exotic Fudges" I found Lemon Butter Fudge, Carrot Fudge, Applescotch, Pineapplescotch and Peanut Butter Goat's Milk Fudge.  If you are interested in them, you could Google them or visit epicurious.com.  You can find anything on line.

A Chronology of Historic Fudges lists:
1849 - Ginger Candy
1879 - Cocoanut Caramels
1887 - Vassar Fudge - Making fudge secretly at night was considered verrry daring!
1890 - Vanilla Candy
1900 - Fudge Arrives!
1902 - Chocolate Caramels
1909  - Smith College and Wellesley College Fudges
1920s - Treacle Toffee

Tempted though I might have been by some of the exotics - add chopped maraschino cherries to your fudge mix...nevertheless, making fudge is too much work.   I try to avoid hard work.  But you go ahead!  Send me a taste when you're done...