Learn How to Make Chocolate Fudge! This easy, delicious recipe can be customized with your favorite flavors and mix-ins! Perfect for dessert or bake sales!
As a Chicago girl, we’re obsessed with Fannie May fudge and Trinidads. Make them yourself and you’ll understand the obsession!
Why this Fudge is Best
Wanna know a secret?
If you want to be invited to every party, all you need to do is learn how to make chocolate fudge and bring it with you to each event. I can guarantee you’ll be on every invite list!
I’m not saying it’s why my friends invite me to their get-togethers, but I’m not saying it’s not either. I’ll just offer you a piece of chocolate fudge and let you decide for yourself.
The best part is that it’s so easy to make with my Easy Chocolate Fudge Recipe, you won’t mind whipping up a batch for any potluck or holiday party.
Knowing how to make fudge is a trick you’ll use time and time again, so I thought I’d share my favorite fudge-making tips and tricks with you.
Ingredient Notes
Making creamy chocolate fudge really only takes a handful of pantry staples that are easy to keep on hand for any time a chocolate fudge craving hits.
Of course you’ll want to grab some butter, sugar and cream. All of the best candy recipes start with those building blocks!
You’ll also need your favorite milk chocolate chips.
One of the most important chocolate fudge ingredients is marshmallow cream, sometimes called marshmallow fluff. I like using marshmallow fluff in my fudge recipes because it makes the fudge really easy to make. No need to cook sugar for what feels like hours on end!
That’s it.
5 simple fudge ingredients (or 6 if you count a pinch of salt) are all you need to make a most basic easy chocolate fudge recipe. Anything else is optional and easy to customize to your tastes!
How to Make Chocolate Fudge
Some “old school” fudge recipes make you cook a mixture of sugar, butter and cream to a certain temperature, then wait for it to cool down, then beat it like crazy until it’s creamy.
While it makes delicious fudge, it’s not something I want to do all the time. Lucky for you (and my family and friends), I’ve figured out how to make chocolate fudge with an easier method that makes fudge that is just as creamy and delicious.
In fact, once you learn how to make chocolate fudge with my method, I bet you’ll make chocolate fudge all the time as teacher gifts, for parties, or just to celebrate the weekend.
To start, place milk chocolate chips and the marshmallow cream into a large mixing bowl. Set this aside –you want to do this first because once the butter and sugar is ready, you’ll need to pour it over this mixture right away!
In a saucepan, bring the sugar, cream, butter and a pinch of salt to a boil and cook for 5 minutes, keeping it at a steady boil. Then remove the pan from the heat and very carefully pour the hot sugar mixture over the waiting chocolate and marshmallow cream.
Use an electric mixer to blend everything together for about a minute, just until the chocolate is melted and everything is smooth. Using an electric mixer makes this step super easy.
Once this is ready, you can fold in any extra mix-ins you might want or simply pour the fudge into a prepped 8-inch pan.
After a 2-hour rest in the refrigerator, your chocolate fudge is ready to cut and enjoy!
You can also make chocolate fudge ahead of time, even up to a couple of days in advance, making it the perfect candy to make for parties or gift around the holidays.
So Many Variations
Once you know how to make chocolate fudge, you can tweak my easy chocolate fudge recipe to personalize it in any way you like!
Simply add in some flavor extract if you want or mix in anything from chopped candy to nuts to crushed cookies or even cookie dough.
- Cookie dough is one of my favorite fudge mix-ins! Stir in chunks of frozen cookie dough to make Chocolate Cookie Dough Fudge.
- If you love buttery macadamia nuts, you’ll love adding them to your chocolate fudge to make Macadamia Nut Fudge.
- You can even make your chocolate fudge a little boozy if you want! Swap some of the cream for Baileys for Irish Cream Fudge.
- See?? Knowing how to make fudge is a trick you can use time and time again. And if chocolate fudge isn’t your thing, not to worry –you can use these tips to learn how to make vanilla fudge as well!
What will you add to customize your easy chocolate fudge recipe?
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How to make Chocolate Fudge
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ¾ cup unsalted butter
- Pinch of salt
- 11 oz milk chocolate chips
- 1 jar marshmallow cream 7oz
Instructions
- Prepare an 8-inch square baking dish by lining it with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Add milk chocolate chips and marshmallow cream to a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
- In a large, heavy saucepan, add butter, cream, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring frequently. Once boiling, continue to boil for a full 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat and pour over chocolate and marshmallow cream. Using an electric mixer, blend for about one minute, until chips or morsels are melted and mixture is smooth.
- Add any desired mix-ins and fold them in with a spoon, gently. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and refrigerate for two hours (or overnight), covered with a piece of plastic wrap.
- Once set, cut into bite sized pieces and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Notes
- You can also make chocolate fudge ahead of time, even up to a couple of days in advance, making it the perfect candy to make for parties or gift around the holidays.
- Once you know how to make chocolate fudge, you can tweak my easy chocolate fudge recipe to personalize it in any way you like!
- Simply add in some flavor extract if you want or mix in anything from chopped candy to nuts to crushed cookies or even cookie dough.
Aimee!!! I’m so glad I refound this recipe I made it last Christmas n I had more compliments n requests for the recipe than anything else ive ever made. My other tablet crashed along with all my recipes, etc. Thank you for the best fudge recipe I’ve ever had or made!
Can you freeze this perfect fudge? Wonderful recipe.
You sure can! I slide the whole pan of fudge into a ziploc freezer bag 🙂
Hi Just a quick question, I don’t have heavy Cream, can I substitute it for something else?
Thank you
Kim
Unfortunately the heavy whipping cream really adds to the texture of this fudge. Using something else, that may be lighter in fats, will result in a fudge that doesn’t set properly.
I want use coca powder and heavy whipping cream and no marrmlow
Can I use semi sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips? Would it affect consistency?
The taste is amazing but my fudge is still pretty soft and sticky even after all night in the fridge. What did I do wrong?
My guess is that it didn’t boil long enough. You could turn it into truffles! Scoop a Tbsp of fudge into a ball. Freeze on parchment paper. After an hour or two remove from freezer and dip in melted Ghirardelli chocolate (or white chocolate) wafers.
Aimee mine does that too…I’ve boiled it 6 mins but I’m not sure if it made a difference n I’d be afraid of burning it after that but the candy is soooooo good nobody cares if it’s a lil soft
The cakes are so fresh, the recipe you made is so great and you have really clever hands, I really like the way you decorate them.
I’m wondering why I didn’t call for any vanilla otherwise it seemed great.
Hi Aimee, where I live there isn’t marshmallow cream only regular marshmallows. Do you think if I melt them the result would be the same?
1 cup of marshmallow cream is the same as 16 regular marshmallows WITH 2 tsp corn syrup. Hope this helps 🙂
So easy and delicious! YUM!
Thank you! This looks YUM!! Can you double this recipe? My old fudge recipe (Hershey’s) is delicious but does not work at all if it is doubled.
I honestly haven’t tried with this recipe!
Better than cookies! And I can’t believe how easy it is to make fudge. Where has this recipe been all my life?!
Ok I’m definitely trying this. I didn’t realize it was so simple to make my own fudge
Marshmallow fluff is definitely a great addition to this recipe!
Such a great basic fudge recipe to have!!
What brand of marshmallow cream do you use? I have the store brand, Kraft and fluff at my store.
What about the whote chocolate fudge? Whenever I try to find a recipe it’s highly concentrated on marshmallows. Then taste less like fudge in my opinion. Essentially I’m trying to make a fabulous espresso fudge like I got at the beach one time. I have never successfully done it. It’s either too grainy or a taste too much like marshmallow fondant. Can you help?
Hi Jennifer. I do have this Espresso Fudge recipe: https://www.shugarysweets.com/espresso-toffee-fudge/ or you can check out my HOW TO MAKE VANILLA FUDGE blog post and add in ingredients you think sound delicious. https://www.shugarysweets.com/how-to-make-vanilla-fudge/ I personally don’t think it tastes marshmallow like 🙂
That link does not work. You also listed a link for espresso fudge cookies that doesn’t work either. Very disappointing
I do sometimes have to “thin” my content and unfortunately both of those espresso recipes saw very little traffic and have been removed. Sorry!
Fudge is something I struggle to make, this recipe looks delicious and easy!
Chocolate fudge was my favorite treat growing up and i am excited to learn all tips and tricks using your recipe-tutorial.