Creamy, delish, and bursting with chocolatey goodness, this super easy 3-ingredient Chocolate Fudge recipe is any chocoholic’s dream. Satisfy your sweet cravings with just 15 minutes of effort!
About Chocolate Fudge Recipe
This ridiculously easy recipe is not the traditional old-fashioned way of making chocolate fudge, which is why I love it so much.
Unlike the traditional method, you don’t need to spend hours cooking and reducing the fudge mixture. All you need is 3 ingredients and 15 minutes of time to make this delicious homemade candy!
It’s such a time saver during the holidays when all you want to do is cook less and spend more time with your family and loved ones.
Since this fudge recipe is so simple, it’s perfect for making a big batch to gift to your friends, neighbors, mailman, or anyone else you want to show appreciation to!
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Baking Chocolate: The chocolate bars used for baking are also known as cooking chocolate. For a really smooth texture I recommend using what is known as couverture chocolate, which has a higher proportion of cocoa butter in the mix. Based on your taste preferences, you can opt for either white chocolate, milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, or dark chocolate.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk – You could use any of your favorite brands, but make sure it is sweetened. Feel free to swap in a vegan brand if needed. You can also use evaporated milk, but you’ll need to add icing sugar (a.k.a. confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar) to sweeten it.
- Butter – Both salted and unsalted butter work in the recipe. If you opt for unsalted butter, just add a pinch of salt. Ghee is also acceptable if you want a richer flavor. You can also use vegan butter if needed.
- Nuts: Adding nuts is totally optional, but is a nice way to add some texture. You can use your favorite chopped, toasted nuts or dried berries, or skip the nuts altogether.
How To Make Chocolate Fudge
If you’ve ever made fudge the old-fashioned way, you’re in for a treat. This method is SO MUCH EASIER! Here’s how it’s done:
Prep & Temper Chocolate
1. First, line a 6 x 6-inch square pan with aluminium foil or parchment paper. Keep some extra paper or foil hanging on the sides of the pan so that you can easily lift it when the fudge is set and done.
Chop chocolate and set aside. You could also just keep the chocolate block in a ziplock bag and break it with a pestle.
2. Take 1 cup chopped couverture chocolate, 200 grams sweetened condensed milk (half a can of condensed milk), and 1 tablespoon butter in a bowl or a shallow frying pan.
If using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt. Set the bowl or pan aside.
3. Heat about 1 to 1.5 cups water in a sauce pan or pot on a medium to high heat till the water becomes hot and begins to boil.
4. Lower the heat and place the bowl or shallow frying pan, containing the chopped chocolate, condensed milk, and butter on the saucepan, making sure that the bottom does not touch the boiling water.
You can also melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second bursts, but I prefer using this double boiler method rather than melting chocolate in the microwave because it’s easier to keep from scorching.
5. As soon as you place the pan on the double boiler, the chocolate will begin to melt.
6. Stir often while the chocolate is melting.
7. In the photo below you can see that more of the chocolate has melted.
8. Stir the fudge mixture non-stop while the chocolate is melting.
9. When all the chocolate is melted, turn off the heat.
10. Quickly add chopped walnuts and vanilla extract or vanilla powder, if using.
11. Mix very well.
Set Chocolate Fudge
12. Using a spatula, pour the entire fudge mixture in the pan lined with the aluminium foil.
13. Let the fudge first cool at room temperature. Do not cover the pan while it is hot, or you’ll have condensation raining down on it.
When the chocolate fudge has cooled entirely to room temperature, cover the pan and refrigerate it for 3 to 4 hours or overnight, till it sets completely.
I kept the fudge overnight in the fridge.
14. When set, remove the fudge along with the foil and place it on a chopping board.
15. Slice the chocolate fudge into squares or rectangles. The yield is 350 grams of chocolate fudge from this recipe and makes for about 10 to 12 squares of fudge pieces.
16. Serve these chocolate fudge squares or wrap them in foil or parchment paper and keep covered in a jar or box in the fridge. These stay good for a month in the fridge.
Expert Tips
- Lining your pan or tray: While making any fudge, it is very important to line your pan or tray with a parchment paper or a foil. Keep some extra paper or foil on the sides of the pan so that you can easily lift it when the fudge is set.
- Tempering chocolate: Chocolate needs to be tempered correctly for a smooth and glossy texture. Tempering means to melt chocolate and then cool it to achieve a stable crystalline structure, that results in a smooth, velvety, glossy and even texture. The best method to melt chocolate is with the double boiler as shown in this recipe. It gives you perfect results every time.
- Roasting Nuts: Lightly roasting the nuts will give them much richer flavor. Feel free to use pistachios, almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, cashews, or pine nuts.
- Refrigeration: Make sure to refrigerate the fudge for it to set completely and give you neat squares or cubes. Refrigeration makes the fudge more firm.
- Scaling: You can easily halve or double this recipe as needed.
FAQs
In this recipe, nothing! Unlike traditional candy-making methods, all you need to do is temper the chocolate with the butter and sweetened condensed milk, no beating required.
I suggest running your knife under hot water, then drying it thoroughly. The heat will help you cut through the fudge, leaving perfect edges.
So long as you are using a high-quality couverture chocolate, feel free to experiment with different flavors. I’m a fan of milk chocolate in this recipe, but it will also work with white, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate if you prefer!
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Chocolate Fudge Recipe (3 Ingredients)
Ingredients
- 1 cup couverture milk chocolate – chopped, or 150 grams. can add sweet chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate or dark chocolate instead
- 200 grams sweetened condensed milk or half a can of 14 oz or 400 grams sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tablespoon Butter – salted or unsalted
- ¼ cup walnuts – chopped, optional
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract – or vanilla powder, optional
Instructions
Preparation
- First line an aluminium foil or parchment paper in a 6 x 6 inch square pan. The foil or parchment paper has to cover all the sides and keep some extra on the top.
- Chop the chocolate. Alternatively you could keep the chocolate bar in a ziplock bag and with a pestle, break the chocolate.
Tempering chocolate
- Take the chopped chocolate in a bowl or a small frying pan. Add the condensed milk and butter. You can use either salted or unsalted butter. Set the bowl or frying pan aside.
- In a sauce pan or pot heat 1 to 1.5 cups water till it becomes hot and begins to boil.
- Lower the heat and place the small frying pan or bowl containing the chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and butter on the pan.
- Stir and allow the chocolate to melt. Continuously stir the fudge mixture while melting the chocolate.
- Once all the chocolate is melted, turn off the heat.
- Quickly add chopped walnuts and vanilla extract or vanilla powder. Mix very well.
Setting chocolate fudge
- Then pour the entire chocolate fudge mixture in the pan lined with the aluminium foil or parchment paper.
- Let the fudge cool at room temperature. Do not cover the pan.
- Once the fudge has cooled at room temperature, cover the pan and refrigerate the fudge for 3 to 4 hours or overnight till it sets completely.
- Later remove the chocolate fudge along with the foil and place it on a chopping board. Remove the foil from the bottom and sides.
- Slice the chocolate fudge into squares or rectangles.
- Serve these chocolate fudge or wrap them in foil or butter paper and keep covered in a jar or box in the fridge.
Video
Notes
- Lining your pan or tray: Always line your pan or tray with a foil or parchment paper when making any fudge. Do keep some extra paper or foil on the sides of the pan so that you can easily lift it when the fudge is set.
- Tempering chocolate: Chocolate needs to be tempered correctly for a smooth, even and glossy texture. The best method to temper the chocolate is with the double boiler as shown in this recipe. You could even microwave the chocolate for a few minutes till it melts.
- Roasting Nuts: If you prefer you can lightly toast the nuts. For the nuts you could use pistachios, almonds, walnuts, pecans and pine nuts.
- Refrigeration: You do need to refrigerate the fudge for it to set completely and give you neat squares or cubes.
- Scaling: You could easily halve or double this recipe.
- Substitutions:
- Replace ghee (clarified butter) with butter.
- Use couverture semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate or chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate.
- In place of sweetened condensed milk use evaporated milk but add some icing sugar according to your taste.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Chocolate Fudge recipe from the archives, first published in Feb 2015 has been updated and republished on May 2023.
Hi dassana
Can i melt the chocolate in microwave ??
nikki, you can melt chocolate in the microwave.
I tried the recipe but then oil got separated and chocolate didn’t melted properly help me
the chocolate has to melt properly. the stirring has to be often so that all the chocolate melts. what you can do is form balls from the chocolate mixtur and coat the balls in desiccated coconut or cocoa powder or chopped dry fruits or powdered sugar. also i have used butter. oil is not used in the recipe.
I dont hav butter paper nor aluminium foil wt can i do…plzzz help
just grease a pan or tray very well with some butter and then use it.
hi dassana,
tried the chocolate ice cream. turned out amazing!!!!!!! thank you so much for your suggestions. now i want to try the chocolate fudge. but i have hershey’s cocoa powder and a very small amount of condensed milk( left from my ice cream preparation 🙂 ) for the above give measurements of items how much cocoa powder should i use? in my case as i will be adding both sugar and condensed milk, should i i first add the sugar,melt it then add condensed milk and cocoa powder ?
welcome radhika. with cocoa powder, the method is different. you need to cook the cocoa powder, sugar, butter/ghee and milk/condensed milk till you get a barfi like consistency. it can also be like a halwa consistency. first heat ghee (2 to 3 tbsp), keep flame to a low. add cocoa powder. stir and then add milk/condensed milk. if using condensed milk you won’t need to add sugar. you can 1 to 2 tbsp if the sweetness is less. then stir non stop till the mixture starts leaving sides of pan. pour in a bowl or tray and let it set. you can even use half-half of milk and condensed milk. but here you will need to add some sugar as milk will dilute the sweetness of condensed milk. you can add 2 to 3 tbsp cocoa powder or more. hope this helps.
Hi dassana. I would like to know which brand of choclate i should use for white choclate.
anita, you can use callebaut brand. i have used it and it is good. also use any good brand but avoid morde chocolates. basically avoid compound chocolate and use couverture chocolate.
What brand of milk chocolate did u use if we use milk chocolate won’t it be too milky can we use cadbury bournville
i have used couverture chocolate. its made from cocoa butter. there are some indian brands also which sell couverture chocolate. on google you can find the difference between couverture and compound chocolate.
Thanks for the recipe. But when I followed this method, the whole mixture started coming together at the melting stage, instead of forming a liquid slurry as appearing in the pictures. It was kind of stringy and sticky. I used some MI brand of dark chocolate (75% cocoa) from godrej nature’s basket, nutralite butter and nestle milkmaid. I also added about 3 tsp of sugar as the taste was very bitter otherwise. I wonder what went wrong? Any suggestions? The sugar grain size was big. Could that be the culprit? The mixture cooled down very quickly to room temperature and I have now put it in the freezer section. It seems fine as of now but I doubt if it can be stored outside the freezer.
its due to the sugar. looks like the sugar cooked to a string consistency and that why the mixture started coming together. whenever you use dark chocolate for melting, then use super fine grained sugar or powdered sugar. the large grained sugar gives problems. once i tried making a chocolate icing with large grained sugar and the sugar only has not melted and the chocolate has melted. so the grainy texture of the granulated sugar was felt in the icing. i has to discard the whole icing and make a fresh one with powdered sugar. its better to keep in the fridge as condensed milk is used.
Thanks ! Noted your suggestion. Yes the same thing happened- the sugar did not melt fully and we could feel a crunch while chewing- but my folks loved it! The accident actually turned out to be yummy 🙂 and after setting in the fridge overnight, the end result turned out to be awesome. Thanks for Sharing this easy yummy recipe.
nishtha, good that your family liked the crunch. yes setting does help to firm the texture of the choco fudge. thanks.
Helllppp dasana jiii…. My chocolate didn’t set ?? I don’t know the reason it’s like sticky like clay but not hard ?
deekhsa, chocolate needed to be cooked more. but isn’t the sticky chocolate tasting good. some fudge recipes do have a sticky consistency.
okay I shall try it that way the next time and see how it works out. Thanks
My chocolate fudge isnt turning out smoothly. Once I melt the chocolate and add in the condensed milk after mixing it for a while, its starting too get too crumbly. The consistency and texture of it is too different as shown in your receipe. This is the second time its happened. Wt exactly is the problem?
madhavi, the chocolate is getting cooked too much and hence the crumbliness. condensed milk is not added when all the chocolate is melted. add everything in the pan – chocolate, condensed milk and butter. then melt the chocolate in a double boiler. if you do this way, then the fudge will have a smooth consistency.
Woww…finally got a perfect recipe of a fudge….it turned out yummm….super easy recipe too…tnx heaps to u mam….
thanks again divya.
Hi lovely recipe, would want to try it. Could you please tell me which brand chocolate should I buy?
imported brands are good always. even some indian brands are good. just do not buy morde, as it less or no chocolate and more chemicals etc. i have used callebaut brand. i also have used cocoa craft which is an indian brand for some other recipe. when buying always read the ingredients.
Hi Dasanna!! I tried with chocolate available here in my place but the fudge didn’t come out that good, probably due to poor quality of chocolate.
Can you please suggest me how to make fudge with cocoa powder?
okay. with cocoa powder, you need to cook it with milk or cream or sugar till the fudge reaches a soft ball stage and them butter is added. condensed milk can also be used. one of my friends used to make very good chocolate fudge with condensed milk and ghee. unfortunately i do not have her recipe as i never asked for it. you can check this easy fudge recipe from hershey’s website – https://www.hersheys.com/recipes/en_US/recipes/5303/hersheys-rich-cocoa-fudge.html
Thank you for your reply, Dasanna!
Oh you mean if I add cocoa powder I won’t get the fudge consistency, rather it becomes peda sort of texture, is it?
Love your blog! Keep going
Thank you!
welcome jayasri. with cocoa powder, you will get fudge consistency. it will be more like a thick halwa consistency. i have seen how the fudge is made with cocoa powder, so i know it does give a fudge consistency.
Like it… Thnku
welcome rishabh, thanks.
yummy ?