What the Fudge

A couple of months ago our neighbour brought us some of the best fudge I've ever tasted, and trust me when I say as a fudge fan I've tried a fair bit. Said best fudge was (of course) homemade, using Nigella's vanilla fudge recipe.
It's taken me this long to try making it myself because I was scared, and I might have had a good reason. Fudge bubbles up a LOT.

Toil and trouble 

The thing with fudge is patience - and if you're using a sugar thermometer, make sure it works. I'd like to blame that for my less-than-stellar results, but they also say that a poor workman blames his tools.

The blob 

As you can see, my fudge didn't set. It wasn't far off, but it wasn't exactly choppable, either. The flavour was fine, but consistency? No bueno. Time for plan B.

Roly poly 

I took advantage of the fact that my fudge was super malleable, and rolled it into walnut-sized balls.

Chocolate chestnuts 

The obvious solution to any culinary problems is to cover it in chocolate, and this worked out pretty well. I used dark chocolate which stopped the extreme sweetness of the fudge from being too overpowering. Keeping them in the fridge also keeps the chocolate crisp and snappable.