Fudge it and Scarper...Vintage Carrot Fudge Recipe

In a bid to mix things up and not only write about hair makeup and clothes, I decided to get my pinny on and make an attempt at a recipe from days gone by.

These recipe blog posts will be somewhat experimental and I will give you honest opinions even if things aren't quite as delicious as the Ministry of Food would have liked us to think!

I give you....

Carrot Fudge 

This recipe is very easy to make and uses only three ingredients.

You will need:

2 large carrots
Orange Essence
Gelatine leaf (I used a vegan version for non pork eaters!)
Fine grater
Flat bottom dish
Saucepan
Heatproof stirrer





1. Wash and cut the tops off your carrots, then use the fine end of the grater and grate the carrots into a bowl. It is easiest to do this from the large end of the carrot where you have cut the top off and work to the smaller end.

2. Add the carrots to the saucepan and add in boiling water (just enough to cover the carrots) stir in a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half of orange extract and allow to cook for 10 mins, stirring occasionally. Yep it should look a bit like sick at this point, but it should smell nice and orangey.

3. After 10 minutes add the prepared gelatine leaf and stir for 2-3 minutes continuously. You will need to read the instructions of the gelatine brand you are using to prepare it. I used a vegan gelatine powder which could be sprinkled in straight from the packet.

4. Remove from the heat and place the mixture in the flat bottom dish and leave in a cool place, once the mixture has cooled you can place it in the fridge or a larder overnight. It will not go hard like fudge so don't wait for that to happen!

5. Cut into cubes to serve 

The results 

To call this fudge is slightly misleading as it has a texture somewhere between jelly and turkish delight.

The taste was odd, nothing came through particularly strongly at first, of course it tasted of carrot and had a little citrus zing. It's not overly sweet which is unsurprising considering it contains no sugar. The aftertaste is stronger than the actual chewing of it, but it is in no way offensive.

I used my colleagues as the tasters for this recipe and the reviews were certainly mixed...

One described it as "A wobbly melt on the tongue...tantalising" whilst others said it was a funny texture, the name fudge was misleading and that is was just plain "Carroty"

Some said they could see why children would like it, and another described it as challenging...challenging to see why someone would try to make carrots into fudge in the first place perhaps!

Overall if you were a child of the era who had been without any kind of sweets in some time I have no doubt this would have seemed like a treat.

Ideas: It would make an excellent healthier alternative to halloween jelly, it would look great set into moulds and the orange colour would be on theme for the holiday.

It would also be interesting to spice it up a bit with some nutmeg or cinnamon to add to the flavour without being frivolous with sugar, after all the WI's jam needs come first!

With Love
RB
XX

Sources:
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history4.html
Recipe sourced from Colleen Moulding's "Frugal Recipes from Wartime Britain"