It all comes down to the freshest, most delicious Vermont goat milk. Our fudge simply couldn't exist without it. That's where our one of a kind flavors comes from! Fudge can be made using all sorts of ingredients like cow milk, coconut milk, powdered box mix (which isn't even real fudge), and many more ingredients.
When we started planning our fudge business over ten years ago and experimenting with different recipes we knew that the most important thing was to create fudge using old-fashioned, traditional cooking methods so that we could stand out from the competition. We believe that real fudge making is a lost art and we wanted to be a producer that helps to keep it alive.
Many fudge lovers don't realize that much of the fudge being sold online, in general stores, and even in specialty fudge stores is made using a box mix. It's a powder that requires adding butter (because the milk is already in powder form), warming up, mixing and pouring. To incorporate flavors they microwave the base mix to make it pliable and then mash it all together to make it look pretty.
Marketing gimmicks aside, the "fudge" they are selling is filled with palm oil, palm kernel oil, soy and vegetable oils. All these fats are melted together to form this fake fudge because it's so much easier and cheaper for them than making the real thing. This is also why many "fudge" producers don't list their ingredients. The very definition of fudge is: "Fudge is a type of sugar candy that is made by mixing sugar and milk, heating it to the soft-ball stage, and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency." They didn't need palm oil in the 1800's when fudge making began and they don't need it now!
For us it was simple. All our simplest chocolate based fudges are made with: Vermont goat milk, sugar, Belgian cocoa mass (pure chocolate), organic non-GMO Canadian corn syrup, bourbon vanilla and sea salt. It doesn't get more simple than this! This is why we believe our fudge flavors are so special and we are able to create them without adding a bunch of unnecessary fillers.
All our fudge is made in 12 pound batches and it begins with heating the goat milk in our fudge kettle until it starts to steam. We then add all our dry ingredients except for chocolate and allow the mixture to boil to soft-ball stage. The mixture must be timed carefully, stirred at exactly the right time and temperature, and cooled at exactly the right speed otherwise it can result in a grainy, failed batch of fudge.
While the fudge is cooling, we must add the chocolate, vanilla and any other ingredients at different intervals depending on the temperature of the fudge. Some of our fudge flavors have dried fruit, or cookies and if we add the cookies while the temperature is too high it will dissolve them so this is why it's taken years to develop our recipes.
Once the fudge is cooled to the proper temperature (which varies by flavor and ingredients), we then pour it into loaves and we decorate the tops with swirls and the fudge sets almost immediately. You don't even want to hear about what happens to our kettle if we pour it too late, but it makes quite a mess! We allow the fudge to sit out for 24 hours to continue firming before we hand cut each loaf into slices, wrap and box each slice and then off they go to our customers.
Our farm is located in the foothills of the green mountains and we wanted to incorporate that into all our packaging. All our goat milk fudge comes in one of our beautiful Vermont themed gift boxes with illustrations of the green mountains in the background. We love what we do and are so excited to share our creations with people looking to try something new.
