Kentucky Bourbon Fudge

Kentucky is not only famous for the Kentucky Derby, but also for its bourbon and Kentucky Bourbon Fudge that's sold all over the world.

Situated on more than 2,000 acres of farmland in Nelson County, Kentucky lies The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. Catholics recognize Gethsemani as the mother house of all Trappist and Trappistine monasteries in the United States. It's the oldest monastery still in use in this country.

Gethsemani's fame emerged when the monk Thomas Merton, an acclaimed author and poet, moved there to live out his life. Merton passed away on December 10, 1968 by accidental electrocution in Bangkok, Thailand, while attending a meeting of religious leaders. He is buried on the monastery grounds.

Today, the monks of Gethsemani support the monastery by producing Port Salut cheese, fruitcake, Kentucky Bourbon Fudge and through royalties received from sales of Thomas Mertons' books.

Visiting Gethsemani

On a recent visit to Gethsemani, I purchased a pound of the monk's bourbon fudge from the monastery's gift shop. After I got home, family members helped me devour the delicious box of candy. That experience left us determined to try to duplicate the monk's recipe. My brother, who visited the monastery with me, found a recipe for bourbon fudge on the Internet and tried it out with no success.

My favorite fudge is the Kraft's Fantasy Fudge Recipe found on the back of Kraft's Marshmallow Creme and often on the back of chocolate chips. The recipe has been around for many years and a favorite for making around Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you're a mother, you most likely made this fudge for your children many times.

The buzz on the Internet is that Kraft has changed the recipe and fudge makers aren't too happy about it. Fantasy Fudge is an easy no-fail recipe to make. It had been years since I made fantasy fudge, and I set out to make it with a little bourbon added. So confident that I could make it like all the other numerous times, that I thought I didn't need to pay much attention to the recipe. I threw all the ingredients into the pot and cooked it for an indeterminate amount of minutes and dumped in 1/8- cup of bourbon at the end. The result was syrupy fudge, so I went back to the drawing board and the result is the following recipe:

Brenda's Kentucky Bourbon Fudge

An Adaptation of Kraft's Fantasy Fudge

Prep time 15 min - Total time 20 min

Ingredients for 24 servings
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar • 1/4 cup real butter • 1/2 cup evaporated milk • 7 oz. jar marshmallow creme • 12 oz. bag milk chocolate chips • 1/4 cup bourbon • 1 cup chopped walnuts • Timer

Combine first 4 ingredients in a heavy saucepan or double boiler over medium heat. Cook stirring constantly. When the mixture starts to boil, set the timer for exactly 5 minutes. Continue to stir while cooking. When the timer goes off, remove from heat and work quickly to add the bag of chocolate chips and nuts. Stir until the mixture starts to harden. Pour in the bourbon and continue to stir until all ingredients are blended. Pour into a 9 inch square pan prepped with cooking spray. Place in refrigerator to hasten setting.

Corrections

A few readers have said their fudge came out gritty. That has happened to me a couple of times also. I did some detective work and discovered the problem. My original recipe said to cook on medium-high heat. That is too high and the reason for the gritty fudge. I've changed it to medium heat and my fudge is turning out good again. Also, the type of pot is very important. A thin bottomed pot is going to result in fudge that cooks too fast and burns. If you have any questions or additional problems, please let me know.

Recipe:

1.8/5 Stars (5 Votes)

Conversions

In place of the jar of marshmallow creme, you can use marshmallows..

7 oz. jar marshmallow creme = 16 large marshmallows

7 oz. jar marshmallow creme = 2 cups mini marshmallows

You can find many fudge recipes and Kentucky Bourbon recipes on the Internet. Most of them call for 3 cups of sugar. I searched for a fudge recipe that didn't require that much sugar and adapted it to make Kentucky Bourbon Fudge.

Use any kind of nuts you please or leave the nuts out.

Works of Thomas Merton


A Book of Hours: At Prayer with Thoma... View on Amazon	The Seven Storey Mountain View on Amazon	New Seeds of Contemplation View on Amazon

The New Man View on Amazon	Life and Holiness View on Amazon	Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander View on Amazon

More Dessert Recipes

The Best Carrot Cake Recipe in the World

The L.A. Times published Mrs. Garrett's Museum Carrot Cake Recipe during the 1970's. In my opinion, this carrot cake tops them all.

Carrot Cake | Make Mine Round

I tinkered with an existing recipe to make a carrot cake my way.

See's Candy a Family Recipe

If you're from California, or a few other Western states, you're certainly aw...

Cadbury Creme Eggs

These delicious treats are a popular Easter treat. Some people love 'em, som...

BrendaReeves, on 04/10/2012

Thank you! Would you like to post a comment now?

Comments

Only logged-in users are allowed to comment. Login

BrendaReeves on 12/20/2012

I made some corrections on that recipe and messed up the recipe. The first few times I made it, it came out great. I made it this last week and it came out gritty. My brother has been making it also. He's says he has perfected it. I'm going to call him today and see how I screwed up that recipe. I'll repost to let you know Liz. Thanks to alerting me to this.

Liz on 12/20/2012

Recipe calls for "first 4 ingredients" of which the bourbon is #3, but then later it says to add the bourbon after the chips and nuts. There's a problem there. Is there a missing ingredient in the first 4, or should there have been just the first "3' ingredients - sugar, butter & marshmallow? I got the same gritty mess. Something wrong with this recipe as written above.

BrendaReeves on 11/04/2012

Were any of the products you used old? Such as the sugar, marshmallows or chocolate chips? That could be it. Or, did you use an off brand of chocolate chips?

mixplate84 on 11/04/2012

I dont know what I did wrong, but my fudge was gritty... Like the sugar didn't dissolve all the way. :(

EmilyHorton on 05/10/2012

When I first moved to Kentucky around Christmas years ago I was given some of this fudge and found the most delicious thing I think I have ever tasted. Great post you have here!

BrendaReeves on 04/27/2012

Do you have marshmallows Wendy? Don't forget you can use marshmallows also.

WendyFinn on 04/27/2012

There is little in life I love more than good fudge. Sadly we don't have marshmallow creme here in the UK and I've seen it in loads of recipes. Maybe I'll need to mail order some! You now have me drooling :-)

BrendaReeves on 04/27/2012

Thank you Sean.