All our best creamy, silky smooth dark and white chocolate fudge recipes with condensed milk in a variety of flavors and colors all in one spot!
Best Fudge Recipes Ever
I LOVE fudge and can't get enough of it. To make things easier I've put all our most popular chocolate fudge recipes, and my personal favorites, in one place!!
I consider this to be a list of the best fudge recipes ever. Ok I'm being a little dramatic but have a look below and hopefully you will want to try at least a couple of them.
Let me tell you that each easy chocolate fudge recipe is just so good. Almost too good for words but then you're dealing with a person that always has a fudge stash hidden in my freezer for whenever the need arises! Unfortunately the need arises way too often!
You will find fudge recipes of all flavors such as mint fudge or peanut butter fudge, and all occasions such as this Christmas fudge or red velvet fudge for Valentine's Day.
What is Fudge?
Fudge is a semi-soft candy that usually contains sugar, butter or cream, corn syrup and flavorings. Most common is chocolate fudge, but these days other flavors such as caramel, peanut butter and others may be involved.
Fudge may also be smooth or may have other ingredients such as dried fruit, nuts, and candy added to it as well.
Making old fashioned fudge and traditional fudge involves endlessly, (yes sometimes it feels like that), stirring ingredients in a pot on your stovetop. Slow and low my grandma used to say and she wasn't kidding.
You have to constantly stir over a low temperature in order to make sure the ingredients don't burn and the sugar doesn't crystallize. It has to be cooked at a specific temperature, requiring a candy thermometer or all of your hard work was for nothing.
Being a long time fudge lover I have tried so many different kinds and hands down, the best fudge recipe is made with condensed milk.
Why You Will Love Fudge With Sweetened Condensed Milk
- Only requires a few main ingredients and requires minimal stirring and effort.
- It’s easy to change up the flavors by using different nut and fruit extracts like almond, peppermint or lemon.
- You don't need to be a professional or have any candy making skills whatsoever to make any of these fudge recipes.
- Easily alter any recipe! That’s the most amazing thing about this list of the best fudge recipes with condensed milk!
- More stable with a much longer shelf life.
- A fudge that freezes beautifully and defrosts easily and quickly on the counter.
How to Serve Fudge
Serve it up as a sweet treat to eat! It works great alone or added to a dessert display when you have company coming over.
Use it for perfect edible gifts. Add to gift baskets, gift boxes or just wrapped up with cellophane gathered together and tied with a big bow or ribbon at the top!
Make a sweet tray. Pick up a platter at your local dollar store that you can wrap with cellophane. It’s the perfect thing to bring along as a hostess gift when visiting friends and family.
Variations and How to Flavor Fudge
There is so much flexibility when it comes to making the best fudge recipe with condensed milk. Here are a few of my favorite ideas!
Change the Shape
For simplicity, you can simply pour it into a square or round pan and then cut it up into squares.
For a fancier look, use silicone molds to control the size and shape of the fudge pieces. The molds will allow you to have more control of the look of your finished product. Silicone molds do take some extra time to fill and decorate but in the end the result will make it definitely worth the little bit of extra time.
Use Different Chocolates
- Milk chocolate is a sweet chocolate that you can either use in recipes, especially cookie recipes, or just to snack on. It contains at about 10% cocoa with added sugar, milk and cocoa butter.
- White Chocolate Almond Bark (Confectionery Coating) comes in a different forms from chips to blocks to squares. Despite it's name, it doesn't contain nuts and is valued for it's texture, taste, and melting ease.
- Unsweetened chocolate Made solely of cocoa butter and cocoa solids, the taste of this chocolate is bitter and usually unsuitable for eating, so it's generally only used in baking. It's perfect in cake, cookie or brownie recipes.
- Dark chocolate Since it's sweeter than unsweetened chocolate and has less sugar, it's quite popular with those that want a sweet treat but are health conscious because again, it has less sugar than other chocolates. It has 35% cocoa.
- Bittersweet chocolate is a sweetened dark chocolate that also contains at least 35% cocoa. It is mostly used in baking and is great for recipes that call for a strong chocolate flavor.
- Semi-sweet chocolate This chocolate is also made with at least 35% cocoa and is the most versatile form of chocolate. It's ideal for baking and eating and can be found in many chocolate chip cookie recipes. It also has cocoa butter and sugar added.
- White chocolate: White in color and usually made with just cocoa butter, milk and sugar. It works great to make lighter color fudge. I've got a whole post you can read to learn more about using white chocolate in fudge.
How to Flavor Fudge
The best part about fudge is that you have to remember that you can add anything and everything you can think of into it, flavors that will be acceptable or desirable.
The only thing you really need to keep in mind when choosing ingredients to add is that anything that works well with chocolate will likely taste great in fudge.
Everything from dried cranberries, pistachios, M & M's, or pretzels work great! My son’s favorite is the kitchen sink, as we call it. It has everything under the sun in it and it always changes! Here are more ingredients to add:
- nuts
- coconut
- cookies
- cream filled cookies
- dried fruits
- marshmallows
- cereal
- broken pretzels
- M&M's
- toffee bits
- butterscotch chips
- chocolate chips
- caramel chips
- smarties
- malt balls
- chocolate covered caramels
- mints
- sprinkles or sparkles
Best Fudge Recipes Video
How to Store Fudge
If you're wondering how long will condensed milk fudge last, I've got it all right here!
- Room temperature: Fudge made with condensed milk will last up to 2 weeks at room temperature, in an airtight container.
- Refrigerator: Store it in an airtight container in your fridge it will last up to a month.
- Freezer: Store it different sized portions if desired. Wrap it in parchment paper or plastic wrap, and store in an airtight container or freezer bag with as much air removed as possible, for up to 3 months.
- Thaw: When you need some frozen fudge, place it on your kitchen counter to thaw overnight.
Fudge FAQs
Not every fudge recipe uses flour but some do. It helps the fudge keep its shape a little bit better. Since fudge isn’t really cooked, is it safe to eat uncooked flour?
The FDA recommends heating flour since processing flour doesn’t contain a step that heats the flour to kill any bacteria or germs. You can easily do this by toasting the flour in the oven. Place it on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes. You can also heat it in the microwave for 1:15 minutes on high, stirring every 15 seconds.
Nope! It's super easy to make and there's no need to cook it to a specific temperature for it to set!
The Best Fudge Recipes
Are you ready for the good part? Here are all my favorite fudge recipes! There's such a variety of flavors and colors that make fudge perfect any time of year.
More Delicious Dessert Recipes
This post was originally published October 2019. It has been updated for content.
Angel says
can I substitute evaporated for condensed?
Karin and Ken says
I believe you can but the sweetness of the condensed milk will be missing so you might want to add some sugar until the evaporated milk is sweet enough for your liking. Please let me know how it goes if you try it. I would love to hear. All the best. Karin
Sandra says
Thank you for putting all of your fudge recipes in one place! ❤️
Karin and Ken says
As always you are most welcome! Glad you are enjoying them! I love them all! Take care and all the best. Karin