Recipe(tried): Re: Hersheys cocoa fudge/didn't get hard (didn't set)

Hi, Candy (cool name...you're making candy) (!) Okay, when that has happened to me, it's often that I didn't have a pot large enough to accommodate when the fudge grows into a frothy eruption - resulting in me not allowing it to boil hot enough to set the sugar. Also, it could be that it just wasn't cooked long enough. My Mom always set out a series of cups or small bowls, each containing really cold tap water. She would wait till the fudge had gone into its roiling, frothy boil, and then every minute or so, drizzle a small amount of the molten fudge into one of the cups. She would quickly reach into that water bath and attempt to form the fudge sample into a soft ball. Once that was achieved (usually after several subsequent tries - in which we children would LOVE to assist, because we would gobble it down off our dripping fingers), THEN she'd remove the pot from the stove, begin beating the mixture with the (always) wooden spoon, and add the pure vanilla extract, still beating rapidly. THEN the trick was to very quickly get that mixture into the buttered pan before it set! Also, she always used real butter and regular milk. (C'mon, it's fudge, afterall - sometimes we just gotta go for the gusto!) Hope this helps.