THE Peanut Butter Fudge

I am not sure who this recipe came from, but I know it got passed down through several generations on my mother's side of the family.  It is, by far, the absolute BEST peanut butter fudge ever.  Yes, I can say that, even arrogantly.  I have tried lots of peanut butter fudge, from some of the best fudge-makers around, and none, NONE, even come close.

A few years back, my mother gifted me the card you see above, along with her time-tested candy thermometer and an 'official' fudge-making cooking spoon.  At the time, I was bewildered by the gift; I most certainly was not going to be making the traditional peanut butter fudge, as Mom was the only one who could get it right.  She was the only one who knew instinctively the right weather required for the fudge to turn out that lovely creamy consistency, not grainy.  I can still hear her in my head stating a day was a good day for making fudge.  Unfortunately, I'm not so sure if that day is a rainy day or just an overcast day.  Or was it a sunny, clear day?  I'm just not sure...

As I was unwrapping the gift, I wasn't as pleased as she might have hoped.  I knew what it meant, and so did she.  I told her it wasn't time for her to give me this recipe, but she insisted it was.  It was time to pass it onto you, she said with much certainty.  Haunting words those were.  Little did I know that I only had a few years left with my precious mother.  Man, I miss her.

I haven't had the chutzpah to make the fudge since I got the recipe in my possession, although I wish I would have tried when I could have called her with questions.  I will be eternally grateful that she wrote it in her own hand, not type-written.  Just to see her writing washes the feeling of her over me.  Someday I'm going to have to give this a go, requiring a long walk down memory lane and the times I helped her make it in the kitchen of my youth.  I feel rather guilty that my own children do not have the sweet memories I have of licking the pan after Mom would pour the fudge into the prepared pans for cooling.  I can still see that particular well-used pan and my brother and I eagerly scraping up with our fingers the remnants of peanuty-goodness that Mom would leave for us.

May her memory be blessed.

Mom's candy thermometer and the 'cooking spoon'