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I bought a candy thermometer a few weeks ago and over the weekend I finally busted it out and put it to work! We actually made a bunch of awesome treats (making candy is so much fun!), but my favorite was definitely this sweet and salty brown sugar fudge. It reminds me of weekends down the shore! Which is nice to reminisce on now that it’s starting to cool down around these parts.
Making fudge is a lot less scary than you may think, so don’t worry if you’ve never worked a candy thermometer before; you can do this! The most important part of the whole process is keeping a close eye on the temperature, and pulling it off the heat once it reaches its number goal. Simple stuff!
The hardest part? Waiting for it to cool in the pan! Patience is a virtue 😉
Salted Brown Sugar & Honey Fudge
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt, divided
- 1 vanilla bean, scraped
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- In a heavy bottomed saucepan combine the sugars, honey, cream, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and vanilla bean. Place pan over medium heat and whisk until sugars are dissolved. Place a candy thermometer in the pan, and cook the mixture - stirring occasionally - until the temperature registers at 240 degrees (F). Remove pan from heat. Add the butter, stir until completely melted, then leave the mixture to stand - with the thermometer still in - until it's cooled to 120 degrees (F).
- Pour the fudge into a parchment paper lined baking pan (I used an 8x8 square cake pan), sprinkle with remaining sea salt, and let set for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. Cut into tiny squares and serve, or store in an airtight container. Fudge will last up to 7 days.
Mine turned out more like sticky caramel that can’t be cut into pieces, it’s definitely not smooth thick fudge. Don’t know what I did wrong!
I am completely unwilling to try to find a vanilla bean. lol How much extract would I need to use? any idea?
Hi! This looks amazing! I notice you never specified whether it’s light or dark brown sugar and I know that can make a huge difference.
Also can vanilla extract be substituted since vanilla beans can be expensive and hard to come by (especially fair trade)?
I’m thinking about upping the honey content for mine just a bit because I’m making this for a book club meeting and the book has to do with honey.
Look forward to trying this!
Can you check the sugar amounts? One comment says 1 1/2 c brown sugar, but now the recipe says 2 c brown sugar and only 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Mine cane out like caramel, and I thought maybe there wasn’t enough sugar to crystalize. I did not stir after removing from heat. Thanks!
It’s like a pan of caramel sauce. I think I can scrape it off the paper into a jar. What do you think went wrong? I really did follow the directions exactly.
I had the same thing happen. I am going to start playing around with this recipe to see if I can get it to come together like a fudge instead of a caramel.
Is the amount for the regular sugar 1/2 of a cup? It says 1/2 cups. Mine is about three hours into cooling and seems like caramel, not fudge. Not sure what I did wrong. I did not stir at all once it hit 240 and took it off the heat. I did stir alot when it was getting up to temp because it was bubbling so much. what do you think went wrong? or will I wake up and it will be fudge?!
Hi Anne. How did it come out? I’m not sure what the other commenters reference to in quantity, but the listed amount in the recipe is correct.
In October 2013 someone asked about the brown sugar amount…and it had talked about 1 1/2 cups brown sugar.
Hi Anne. Honestly, I have no idea why it turned out that way. The three times I’ve made this fudge it always comes out like, well, fudge. I am going to re-make this as soon as I can and get back to you on my results.
I made this recipe today. Mine came out grainy and darker in color than yours. What did I do wrong? Did you use light brown sugar or dark? I put the vanilla bean into the mixture as I thought this is what was instructed. It is still in the cooling phase but doesn’t look creamy and didn’t when I put it into the pan. I took it off the heat at exactly 240F.
I just made these and the same thing happened to me. Even though I followed the directions and thought the sugar had dissolved as it cools the fudge is becoming more grainy. The flavor is great, just the texture seems off.
Hi Clarissa. Did you cook the sugar – stirring constantly – until it was completely liquified? The final result should be a snappy, flaky outer shell and a smooth brown sugar center.
This fudge sounds totally incredible love that combination of the sweet and salty especially with the honey in there too!
All I can say is…whooooaaaaa.
These look so simply delectable!