help dry fudge?

[Rene]

Hello all I was wondering if anyone might know why my cooked fudge turned out a little dry and crumbly? it tastes great , but the texture is not as creamy as I think it should be, I'll post the recipie as i dont know if the recipie might be at fault or my cooking of it ... the only alteration that was made was that while this recipie called for coffee liquer, I substituded with a creme liquer, I did cook it exactly to soft boil with candy thermometer and did not stir when the recipie said not to recipie as follows:

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup half-and-half
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons coffee liqueur
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts -- toasted


Directions:
Butter loaf pan, 9 X 5 X 3 inches. Cook sugar, milk, half-and-half, corn syrup and coffee liqueur in 3-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved. Cook, stirring occasionally, to 234 degrees on candy thermometer or until small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when removed from water; remove from heat. Add margarine.

Cool mixture to 120 degrees without stirring. (Bottom of saucepan will be lukewarm.) Beat vigorously and continuously 5 to 10 minutes or until candy is thick and no longer glossy. (Mixture will hold its shape when dropped from a spoon.) Quickly stir in walnuts. Spread in pan; cool. Cut into 1-inch squares

[AndreaKulbaba]

Hey, I haven't cooked any fudge recently, so I'm not sure about the recipe. Have you cooked sugar before? I'm thinking it could have cristalised, or maybe gone a couple degrees too high (which is easy enough to happen, god knows it's happened to me about a million times!)

I am a little confused about letting it cool to 120 degrees without stirring, could someone tell me why you would let it cool like that? Wouldn't there be a risk of taking the temp in a warm pocket, or cooler area?

Andrea

[Rene]

I honestly can't say about the cooling of temps before you beat the fudge, as this is my very first batch of ole fashioned fudge..... Another chef noticed that this recipie did not call for salt, and he thought you needed the salt in the mix for the chemistry/science of fudge.....

as far as i know my baking thermometer is acuarte to the degree, I have cooked peanut brittle before using this thermometer and it has not failed me

if the fudge had crystalised wouldn't the texture be grainy? this fudge did not taste grainy texture at all... it was creamy but just a little dry and crumbly, I'm thinking that the recipie maybe is a bit off and that the liquid amount to the sugar amount is amiss

I will have to do more research on the science of cooked fudge,