How does Rock City make so much fudge?
The recipe calls for strong arms, handiwork and lots and lots of sugar. Britney Anthony, Fudge Kitchen team lead, steps through how her team makes a perfect slice of fudge.
Rock City specializes in marble slab fudge, which she describes as an old school method.
It involves three processes: creaming, ribboning and loafing.
But first, your ingredients need to be set. A typical batch of Rock City fudge starts with 17 pounds of sugar, about three pounds of corn syrup, a dash of salt along with any additional ingredients needed to create each special flavor. The mixture is then poured onto a marble table to cool and give it thickness.
Thus begins the first process, creaming, which basically involves stirring the hot liquid mixture.
“Towards the end of my creaming process is when I would add the chocolates because you want them to melt, but you don’t want it to melt all the way but rather swirled throughout,” Anthony said. “The same with the marshmallows. You would add that at the very end of your creaming, just plopping them right over it and then ribboning to mix it in.”
Ribboning involves folding the fudge on top of each other using a small hand paddle.
“That’s going to cool it down, which helps it form into a thicker piece instead of just a liquid hot fudge,” Anthony said.
The fudge is then left to further cool before it is loafed, involving folding and sculpting and finally cutting the fudge into forty individual, half-pound slices.
Anthony said the entire process takes about an hour, from boiling to working it on the table and cutting it, but she noted that the toughest part, the table work, only takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
Swing by the Fudge Kitchen today to catch a glimpse of this incredible process! This season, try our new Orange Swirl fudge or go with a classic, Peanut Butter Swirl or Chocolate. The Fudge Kitchen is located in Garden’s Gateway just before the trail entrance.