Grandma's Fudge

So a few days late and a dollar short. Sorry, still catching up on my sleep apparently (yeah, I know New Mexico is only an hour behind, but it's also a 12 hour drive, and that takes a lot out of a pregnant girl). Also, I didn't realize just how much I'd miss my baby sister. It's not like she's never been away from home before, but this is also the first grandbaby I'm carrying so it's a bit hard to not have her here. Speaking of babies, want to know what kind of a cupcake I have in the oven? Well, Im' not going to tell you...yet. Soon though, I'll share with you what the hubby and I are expecting.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Grandma's fudge. I remember being 8 years old and growing up down the road from Grandma (an old, gravel, dirt road). About once a month, my sister and I would walk down to her house to "help" her make fudge. It was always the best fudge we'd ever had. Smooth, but crumbly. Rich, but not too sweet. Loaded with pecans and chocolate flavor. Always the best thing we could get at Grandma's.

I called up my Grandma last summer to ask her for the recipe. Imagine my surprise and slight disappointment when she told me to go on the Hershey's website. Apparently, all those years that I thought Grandma was a genius in the kithcne, I had been fooled. Her mother had gotten the recipe off the back of Hershey's cocoa box and had even tricked my grandma into thinking the same thing I did. What a let down! You know what made it better? Making fudge with Grandma in her kitchen.

"Grandma's" Fudge
Recipe by Hershey's, adapted by Grandma

3 cups sugar
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, chopped

1. Line 8-or 9-inch square pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Butter foil.
2. Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in heavy 4-quart saucepan; stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to full rolling boil. Boil, without stirring, until mixture reaches 234°F on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water, forms a soft ball which flattens when removed from water. (Bulb of candy thermometer should not rest on bottom of saucepan.)
3. Remove from heat. Add butter, vanilla, and pecans. Beat with wooden spoon until fudge thickens and just begins to lose some of its gloss. Quickly spread into prepared pan; cool completely. Cut into squares. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.
4. If the fudge doesn't set right the first time, boil the mixture again or eat it with a spoon (I kid you not, that's exactly what Grandma's recipe says).