My Favorite Christmas Candy

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. Whenever my BIG South Louisiana family gets together there is always, among other things, lots of amazing food. And that includes sweets. There are pecan pralines, coconut pralines, divinity, cookies, bars, fudge, fruit candies, brittles and novelty treats for the little ones like these gnomes and reindeers.

But one of my personal favorites is just plain old fashioned peanut butter fudge. Partly because it brings back such great memories for me. It is one of the first things my mom taught me to cook.  I remember her standing over me and my younger sister as we made batches of this sweet treat.  Sometimes it didn’t turn out quite right and we had to eat it with a spoon. And I’ll let you in on a secret – I actually enjoyed eating it this way and on a few occasions I deliberately sabotaged the batch so that it wouldn’t harden properly.  🙂

Anyway, here is the recipe – it’s very sweet so unfortunately I can’t eat it with as much abandon as I once did. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Shirley’s Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 5 cups milk
  • 5 cups peanut butter (either creamy or chunky)
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

  • In a heavy 4 quart saucepan, combine sugar and salt
  • Stir in milk
  • Over a medium heat, stir constantly until mixture reaches a bubbly boil.
  • Continue to boil without stirring until mixture reaches a soft ball stage or 234 degrees.
  • Quickly stir in peanut butter until well mixed.
  • Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla – DO NOT STIR
  • Cool to 110 degrees.
  • Beat until fudge thickens and shine fades.
  • Quickly spread in a buttered 8” or 9” square pan.
  • Cool completely and then cut into squares.

So do you have a special treat that brings back memories for you?

I have several copies of The Holiday Courtship that I’d like to giveaway since I’m reissuing it under a new title and with a new cover so leave a comment and you just might end up with one of these.

 

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Winnie Griggs is the author of Historical (and occasionally Contemporary) romances that focus on Small Towns, Big Hearts, Amazing Grace. She is also a list maker, a lover of dragonflies and holds an advanced degree in the art of procrastination.
Three of Winnie’s books have been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, and one of those nominations resulted in a win.
Winnie loves to hear from readers. You can connect with her on facebook at www.facebook.com/WinnieGriggs.Author or email her at winnie@winniegriggs.com.

67 thoughts on “My Favorite Christmas Candy”

  2. Your fudge looks so yummy! I love all kinds of fudge, cranberry-macadamia biscotti, maple-walnut biscotti, snowball cookies, rum balls and chocolate chip cookies anytime of the year! Oh and can’t forget cheesecake!!!
    Many, many moons ago, I would bake all kinds of cookies for weeks on end for Christmas.(huge family on both parents side). I always had a problem with hubby gobbling them up as fast as I baked them. So, I started hiding them and I had them hid all over the place. Come Christmas time, I went to gather them up to get ready for our family get togethers. I was so smug about having so many cookies for Christmas so imagine my shock as I would go to each hiding place to find an empty container with a piece of paper in the bottom that said, “Kilroy was here”. The adult kids still laugh about that every year now but it wasn’t so funny then. lol

  3. I love good old-fashioned sugar cookies. The kind you roll out and cut into shapes. Most people want to plaster icing all over them, but I want them plain! My other favorite is pecan balls dusted with powdered sugar, lightly!

  5. We always made sugar cookies cut out with Christmas cookie cutters with sprinkles on top. I still make them with my grandchildren.

  8. Mom and I used to make sugar cookies when I was little, but then she discovered a recipe for chocolate-covered peanut butter balls! We don’t call them buckeyes, as we cover the whole thing with chocolate!! We’ve also been known to melt more chocolate and cover peanuts, hazelnuts, cracker with peanut butter, anything we think might be good! I’m planning on getting together with a friend and her kids and making some this year!

  9. I try to make candy every year for my family and neighbors, not sure about this year but we will see. I have already made a batch of that spoon peanut butter fudge that’s in the freezer right now that my son is enjoying. I made chocolate this past week and peanut butter but the peanut butter flopped. It was raining that day so that might have had something to do with it, but I really don’t think I cooked it long enough.

  10. When I think back, fudge at Christmas was a treat my mother always made. One year I made it with her by my side. When I found out all the stirring that was involved to get the fudge to set up, that was my first and last time to make fudge.

  11. wow, thanks for sharing this recipe. I cant eat as much sugar anymore right now, but I loved my moms pies and her jello salad. Now my sister makes for me a pumpkin pie and a custard pie that is gluten and sugar free. Oh my goodness, I cant tell that there is NO sugar of any kind. She knows how to use her spices well.

  12. We used to make lots of candies, divinity, chocolate walnut fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, popcorn balls colored green or red, date-nut rolls, cornflakes coated with either green or red candy syrup. So many I could go on and on. Nowadays I do not dare fix any as it all goes to places I do not choose to see. As I write here I have Christmas songs running through my head. Tis the season! May GOD bless each and every one of you on this most reverent occasion of Jesus’ birth. Happy holidays!

  13. Sugar cookies are my favorite. I remember making cookies with my mom and sisters every year to share with friends and family. Now I’m teaching my kids to make them and share them.

  15. My cousin and I always design, bake, and construct our own gingerbread house every year!

    Although it’s not always a house. We’ve made a train, a doll’s house, the “Up!” house, the White House, a Hobbit hole, and my personal favorite, the very house that we were in! It was my grandparents’ house, and we walked all around the outside, mapping it out on grid paper. Then we used the pattern pieces to cut out the dough.

  18. My mom always made what we called cool whip balls. They were just Hershey chocolate bars melted, cool whip and then rolled in crushed vanilla wafers. So easy and so good!

  19. Oh, Winnie! I’m so glad you posted this recipe. My husband LOVES peanut butter fudge and now I have a good recipe to make it for him! I’ve tried a couple and they were “okay” but not what he remembered having as a kid. I never had it growing up, but I do love it too. I’m definitely going to copy this recipe and make it for him this year!

    My mom ALWAYS made divinity for Christmas and prayed it would “set up” like it should! LOL My dad loved that above all else, so she really made it for him more than anything. Fudge is a “must have” for us (chocolate) and of course, we always did sugar cookies when the kids were little.

  20. We have a sweet neighbor who always gifts us with an assortment of her homemade sweets. Various cookies, fudge and such are included. I really enjoy the chocolate covered pretzels she makes each year.

  23. My daughters and I make an assortment of candies and cookies every year. Penuche, Hershey’s Cocoa fudge, Buttermilk fudge,Toffee, and Hazelnut Brittle are favorites. At least one of us will make cut out sugar cookies which may or may not get frosted. Chocolate covered cherry cookies are a must and always look pretty. My husband loves peanuts so I might have to try your recipe. It sounds really good.

      • The Farm Journal Homemade Candy (c.1970) is a great resource for candy making. This is my version of Buttermilk Fudge

        1 cup buttermilk. 1/4 c butter
        1 tsp baking soda
        2 cups sugar
        2 Tbsp light corn syrup

        Combine buttermilk and baking soda in a 3 or 4 quart heavy pan. Let stand 20 minutes. Add sugar and corn syrup to buttermilk. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. When mixture boils, add the butter and cook, stirring occasionally. Cook to soft ball (236* to 238* or a small amount makes a soft ball in cold water)——it will turn a medium brown color.
        Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm (110*)
        Beat until mixture loses its gloss and starts to thicken. Turn into a buttered 8 inch square pan. Cool until firm and cut .
        Variation: Add 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate with the corn syrup and sugar.
        My notes say it takes about one hour from start to pouring into 8 inch square pan. And, of course, you can add nuts if you like as the mixture starts to thicken.

  24. I remember when I was a child, my aunts would come over. We had a day of baking. We would make sugar cookies among other cookies. My Mom would also make peanut butter and chocolate fudge. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.

  26. My mama made fudge all the time in the winter. Once, when I was around six years old, she and daddy made divinity and I watched! Well, it reminded me, being a very sickly and allergic child, of what I threw up in the mornings, if you catch my drift. I should NOT be telling this story! Lol But, I am going to, anyway! So, when it was done, my daddy had my sister and brother try some, but I refused it! I was a few years younger than my siblings. I finally ran out to our car and locked all four doors and here came daddy holding a spoon with some of the candy in it and I was screaming, “No, daddy, I’m not eating that gross looking stuff!”. He finally started nibbling on it and saying “Mmmm, you know, it sort of tastes like chocolate candy to me. I just know you’re going to love it”. He was really good, because he kept saying just use your imagination and think that it’s chocolate, close your eyes, and it WILL taste like chocolate. So, I finally thought, we’ll,I DO have a great imagination, so I rolled the window down just enough for him to put the tip of the spoon in my mouth, and I’ll be, if that divinity didn’t taste just like fudge! Hahaha Then, I got the aftertaste. I never did eat any of it again. I found out later that my daddy would always be the one to get me to eat when I was a baby, too! I just always thought this was so funny, but you probably had to be there!! Loll

  27. My mom was a great candy maker. Our house was filled with divinity, English toffee, Carmel corn, fudge, peanut brittle, etc. Ever year my grade school teacher would receive box of her homemade goodies. Apparently the teachers were happy to have me that year just for the Christmas treats!

  31. My husband loves Peanut Butter Fudge but I have never made it a neighbor used to give us some every year. Thank you for the recipe. I may just make it for him this year.
    My mother used to make a cake roll every Christmas that I loved. Sadly my mom died at 47 and my step mother threw out all her recipes (and family pictures). My aunt gave me what she said was the recipe but it didn’t work when I tried it.
    It was a yellow cake batter poured into a jellyroll pan lined with wax paper. She would place maraschino cherries, walnuts, and dates in rows then bake it. While it was still warm she would roll it into a nice long log. No frosting spread inside it and just powdered sugar sprinkled on top. She would slice it into one inch rings. It was plain, simple, and not too sweet.
    I really must try to make it again.

    Have a good Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year.

  32. What a wonderful story.

    I remember getting “Chuck Candy,” when I was little. Chuck and his wife were family friends and he would give me peppermints. He also taught me how to dial their phone number and tell them when I was running low. My mother was embarrassed when she discovered the source of the peppermints. 🙂 It did not stop them from coming. I think of them every time I get a peppermint. Such wonderful people.

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