Blood Fudge

Kinda looks like stewing steak doesn't it?

Recently, a delightful author known as Joseph D'Lacey made a plea on twitter for someone to make him some 'blood fudge' to give away to attendees of the launch of his new book, Blood Fugue, at Blackwell's Charing Cross on Friday (16th Nov).

I will admit, my curiosity was piqued. I have made plenty of fudge before, but the idea of creating some that was meant to look like blood intrigued me. I offered to do this, and he gratefully accepted. His brief was that it should be marbled. I thought 'yep, I can do that'. I offered the suggestion of the addition of sour cherries, to represent coagulated blood. The blood thirsty author was delighted with the idea, but then he threw a small spanner into my works. He added that it needed to be vegan. Vegan fudge? Does such a thing exist? Apparently, yes it does.

Taking a basic fudge recipe, I substituted cream for soya milk (I choose chocolate flavour to give extra taste and colour), and the butter for soya margarine. Despite much head scratching, I could not figure out a way to create the marble effect using vegan ingredients.

First attempt was quite brittle, much like a fudge made with milk. It was tasty, but had a little too much of a snap for my liking. I decided to try again, this time adding a little extra margarine to increase the fat content as I felt that this would add the creamy texture and softness I was looking for.

Success! I sent a sample batch to my client, and he loved it. YAY!

For those interested, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 700g caster sugar
• 600ml soya milk (I used chocolate but you can use plain)
• 140g soya margarine
• kosher red food colouring gel (any brand like Wilton is fine)
• 75g sour cherries, lightly chopped
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

 Method: 

1. Line a 7" square tin with cling film
2. Place milk, sugar, and margarine in a large heavy bottomed pan (preferably a preserving pan as the mixture will bloom to more than twice the size)
3. Over a medium heat, stir the mixture until all the sugar and margarine has dissolved.
4. Turn the heat up, and continue stirring until the temperature reaches about 240F/115C on a candy thermometer (which can take about 20 mins or so), or it has reached the soft ball stage.
   Soft ball stage is when a small amount of mixture is dropped into ice water and it can be squeezed into a soft ball.
5. Take off the heat and add the colouring, flavouring and the cherries. 
6. Beat firmly until the fudge just begins to lose its glossiness, then pour quickly into the tin. 
7. Level out with a metal spatula, or back of a spoon. DO NOT TOUCH WITH YOUR HANDS.
8. Score the surface into squares, then leave to cool for a couple of hours.
9. Once cooled, turn out and break along the score marks. 

This will keep in an airtight container for two weeks.