Walnut fudge, also known as Milk and Cocoa fudge is a traditional East Indian sweet made for Christmas! Made in various shapes and sizes, chunks or molded, it’s also the perfect dish for a dinner with friends or a potluck. Try one and you can’t resist another!
Ever wondered why the traditional walnut fudge made by East Indians can be moulded? Me too! I haven’t found any real answer to this other than ‘It’s because we dry the milk a different way!’ or ‘It’s because we use the vanilla cream recipe!’ Anyways, if you’re wondering how to make the East Indian Walnut Fudge, here’s the full recipe.
What are the ingredients for the East Indian Walnut Fudge?
All you need to make this Christmass sweet is milk, sugar, butter, vanilla essence, ground walnuts, and cocoa powder or cacao powder.
How to make the East Indian Walnut Fudge?
You’ll find that this East Indian Milk and Cocoa Fudge or East Indian Walnut Fudge follows a similar process as the Vanilla Cream. There’s just a slight difference with the walnuts and the cocoa or cacao.
Start by grinding the walnuts to a powder and setting aside. A paste of the walnuts is okay to use too.
Start by boiling the milk on a low flame in a nonstick or thick bottomed pan and letting it reduce until it’s nearly half or a third of the original quantity.
Next, add in the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon.
Once the sugar melts, add in the butter, powdered walnuts, cocoa powder or cacao powder, and vanilla essence and stir continuously till it thickens. Continue to stir for about an hour or so till the fudge starts to leave the sides.
When it does, do the ball test which is as follows. Take out a teaspoonful of fudge and cool. Butter your fingers, and try to form a ball with that fudge. If a ball forms, the fudge is ready to be moulded. If a ball doesn’t form, keep stirring, and try making a ball again after a few minutes. Repeat this process till the ball is formed; then pour out the fudge onto a greased tray and form into a large ball.
Fill the fudge dough into silicon moulds to form the shapes you desire. This recipe will make about 100 pieces.
I found it really difficult to find these types of molds outside India though. So if you can’t find them, use any other silicon molds shaped like Christmas trees or stars or other Christmas items and you’re good to go. Or you can get these moulds from Etsy delivered internationally.
Flower-shaped moulds
Seashell shaped moulds
Christmas tree, star and snowflake moulds
Christmas candy canes, Santa and snowman moulds
Gingerbread man mould
If you don’t want to take the trouble of moulding the coco fudge, you don’t have to go through the process of testing to form balls. When the walnut fudge starts to look dry, pour it onto a greased tray and cut into pieces. This will make it more like regular walnut fudge or the Indian akroth barfi.
If you’re a fan of cocoa, you can add an extra tablespoon to the mixture to get a darker color and richer taste. We do this sometimes. Other times, we don’t add any cocoa at all. It tastes absolutely different then. I prefer the version without cocoa, sis prefers the version with. Just like I prefer dark fruit cake with a mix of candied orange peel soaked in rum, while sis prefers her dark fruit cake with brandy.
Also, if you use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder, just reduce the quantity by 2/3rds because it’s a bit stronger.
In the end, it really depends on you, which version do you like to make. Anyways, that’s it for our recipe. Is it similar to how your East Indian family makes it?
If you’re not an East Indian and trying this recipe for the first time, leave me a review below or hop on over to my Facebook group and the pics of what you created there.
Other Recipes You Might Like
- Naralchi Wadi Recipe, an Indian coconut dessert
- Corned Tongue Slices Recipe
- East Indian Marzipan for Christmas
- Gluten Free Chitaps
- White Pumpkin or Bottle Gourd Halwa
- Ginger Wine Recipe (Homemade)
- Mutton Paya Khudi
- Semolina Date Cake
- East Indian Kimad Recipe
- Bombil Pickle Recipe
- Easy Buttery Oyster Mushroom
- Chicken with Mustard Recipe
You can print off the list of ingredients and instructions to follow for making this recipe via the recipe card below (for home use only).
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Easy East Indian Walnut Fudge Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1 l Milk
- 200 gm Sugar
- 1 Tablespoons Butter
- 3 drops Vanilla Essence
- 125 gms Walnut Powdered or Grated
- 1 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder See notes for Cacao powder.
Instructions
- Grease a large wide bottomed pan or flatboard with butter and leave aside. We call this pan a thala.
- Grind the walnuts to a powder or paste and leave aside.
- Boil the milk in a thick bottomed or non-stick pan till it reduces to half or a third of the amount.
- Add in the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon.
- Once the sugar has melted, add in the butter, powdered or grated walnuts, and vanilla essence and stir continuously till it thickens.
- Lastly, you'll add in the cocoa powder or cacao powder and stir for about an hour till the fudge starts to leave the sides.
- Do the ball test now. For this test, you butter your fingers and try to form a ball with that fudge. If a ball forms, the walnut fudge is ready to be moulded. If you can't form a ball, just keep stirring, and try making a ball again after a few minutes. Repeat this step till the ball is formed; then pour out the fudge onto a greased tray and form into a large ball.
- Fill the fudge dough into silicon molds to form the Christmas tree or Santa shapes your family loves. You'll end up with about 100 pieces.
- And that's it! Your fudge is ready. Just leave it out to dry for a few hours or overnight and it's ready to go! Enjoy!
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Notes
- The amount of cocoa powder can be doubled or not put in at all. That’s up to you. If you have any questions, ping me at [email protected]
- If using cacao instead of cocoa, just reduce the quantity by 2/3rds because it’s a bit stronger.
Equipment You Might Want To Use
Awesome, the sweet looks so good , I am surely going to try this recipe some time soon
Wish we could eat this all year round! It’s really tasty.
So different! We didn’t have these moulds, so we cut it in squares. Tastes good.