Chocolate Fudge (with walnuts)

I know there are many recipes that incorporate biscuits into fudge, and there are better biscuit fudge recipes around, but for me, this biscuit fudge recipe holds many memories. This is because this recipe is in Mum’s first recipe book, written in her handwriting, and this is the first biscuit fudge recipe I ever made. I have known this recipe for many years and still think of it fondly. What I do like about this recipe is the addition of the walnuts, not just because as Mum’s recipe says: “1/2 cup chopped walnuts, chopped”, the superfluous word ‘chopped’ always amuses me, but because the walnuts add so much to the flavour and texture of this fudge. Plus, I enjoy the smashing of the biscuits with a rolling pin – this is always therapeutic  For additional therapy, Mum and I sat out in the Spring sunshine and smashed open walnut shells until we had half a cup worth of walnuts. These walnuts are organic and we sourced them locally by foraging around the base of all the walnut trees we know of in our local area. As soon as the walnuts start to fall, we are out there collecting!

CHOCOLATE FUDGE

125g butter

½ tin condensed milk

¾ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 packet of wine biscuits, crushed into small pieces

½ cup chopped walnuts

Vanilla essence

1. Place butter, condensed milk, brown sugar, and cocoa, into a pot and melt all together, on medium heat for about 4 minutes until the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.
2. Add a few drops of vanilla essence, and mix in, then add crushed biscuits and the chopped walnuts.
3. Mix all together quickly, and tip out into a slice tin. Spread mixture out and press into tin before the fudge begins to set.
4. Ice with chocolate icing.

CHOCOLATE ICING

1 ½ cups icing sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon butter

A few drops of vanilla essence

Boiling water, to mix

COOK’S NOTES:

• To smash the biscuits: place them in a strong plastic bag, cover the bag with a tea-towel, then bash the biscuits with a rolling pin.
• The mixture of butter, condensed milk, brown sugar, and cocoa, is best undercooked rather than overcooked. Overcooking means the mixture sets quickly, making the biscuits harder to mix in, resulting in a dry mixture that is difficult to spread out in the tin.