Vintage Hershey Bar Fudge

This is a super-old recipe when Baker's Chocolate was just about the only option one had when baking. And when one could actually find a 13-ounce Hershey's chocolate bar.

Chocolate has come a long way.

As a teacher, I often made this fudge as a reward for students. And I made it for Christmas Open Houses when I owned an art studio. It adapts easily to additions, such as black walnuts. Because I don’t like it too sweet, I add an extra 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate and then 2 ounces less milk chocolate. The original recipe calls for 13 ounces each of semi-sweet chocolate and Hershey's chocolate bar. You do you.

I found a few similar recipes on line but they use evaporated milk. I have not tried that. Below is a similar recipe from the blog "Real Life Dinner" that uses the evaporated milk and mini marshmallows instead of large. Many others use Fluff. Again, I have not tried that nor do I know how many marshmallows is equivalent to one jar of Fluff. 

Evaporated milk has had the water "evaporated" from milk; hence, it's creamier. "Real Life Dinner" uses 2/3 cup evaporated milk for 1/2 of this recipe. If you double it, that would be 1 1/3 cup evaporated milk with the four cups of sugar.

Have everything measured, chopped, and ready to go. Line your pan with parchment paper and then lightly butter it. I've made this without lining the pan and it's a nightmare to remove. And do not use tin foil.

Use whole milk. Not 2 percent milk.

Avoid scraping the sides of the pot--it will make your fudge "grainy." Again, after you pour it into your pan, do not scrape the sides clean--it will make you fudge grainy. Instead, just scrape it into a separate bowl for kids to dig into.

If you half this recipe, use an 8 x 8 pan.

In a large pot, mix the following ingredients:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 4 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup real butter

Stirring, bring to a boil and boil for two minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add:

• 25 large marshmallows

Stir until melted.

Add:

• 2 oz. Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate

Stir until melted and smooth.

Add:

• 13 oz. Baker’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Stir until melted and smooth.

Add:

• 11 oz. Hershey’s Milk Chocolate

Stir until melted and smooth. Add nuts if desired.

Pour into a parchment-lined 12 x 16 metal sheet pan. Chill until set. Carefully remove from pan and remove paper. Cut using a heavy knife or bench scraper. 

Photo taken from hershey-bar-fudge