Sugar, Temperature and Texture

• If you pour a small amount of sugar into your hand, you'll see a mound of evenly sized crystals. They're sweet on your tongue but have a rough and grainy texture. Most candymaking revolves around learning how to dissolve those sugar crystals and then control how and when the crystals reform. With sugar, cream, butter and vanilla, you can make hard candy, chewy caramels or soft, creamy fudge, depending how you heat and cool the sugar.

Precision Counts...

• The cream in your fudge is made up mostly of water, which helps dissolve the sugar and dismantle its original structure of crystals. As you heat the ingredients that will become your fudge, part of that water evaporates. That in turn concentrates the sugars, and the temperature of the sugar syrup begins to rise above the boiling temperature of water. For fudge, the perfect concentration of sugar occurs at 233 or 234 degrees Fahrenheit. Even a few degrees in either direction can leave you with fudge that never sets or fudge that's hard and crumbly, so you'll get the best and most consistent results by using a good-quality candy thermometer to monitor your temperature.

But You Can Fake It

• If you don't have a candy thermometer, you can judge the temperature of your fudge syrup the old-fashioned way. Place a small glass of ice water next to the stove, and periodically drop a small quantity of the cooking fudge into it. Fudge is best when cooked to the "soft ball" stage, meaning it forms a ball when it hits the water -- rather than dispersing in threads -- but that the ball remains soft, squashing easily between your thumb and forefinger. This is less precise than using a thermometer, but with experience you'll get better at judging when to take your fudge from the heat.

Cooling Out

• Cooking your fudge to the soft-ball stage ensures it will set, but you still haven't finished monitoring the temperature. Leave the fudge to cool until it's just warm to the touch, about 110 F, like the water you use to start your bread dough. Then beat the sugar vigorously with a hand mixer for up to 20 minutes until it loses its sheen. This causes the fudge to crystallize suddenly into very fine crystals that give an impression of smooth creaminess on the palate. If you beat the fudge while it's too warm, or if you cool it too quickly, it will become coarse and grainy instead. So take your time, and don't put it in the fridge.