Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipe

Select an old fashioned Penuche fudge recipe and make a nutty fudge-like candy having a caramel-like flavor and containing either peanuts or walnuts.

Penuche (pronounced "puh-noo-chee") is mostly known in the New England states and in Hawaii, with its likely origins in Portuguese whaling families. Its popularity spread throughout North America. Needless to say, it's wonderfully delicious.

Mom's Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipes

Mom's Recipe Scrapbooks (c. 1920s)

Penuche Fudge

1 pound light-brown sugar, 2/3 cup milk, 1 tablespoonful butter, 1 teaspoonful vanilla, 2/3 cup chopped nuts, pinch of salt.

Boil sugar, milk and butter in a saucepan for 15 minutes or until it forms a soft ball in cold water.

Remove from fire and beat until it begins to thicken. Stir in vanilla, nuts and salt. Pour into well-buttered pan to cool. Cut in squares.

Favorite Penuche

Three cups brown sugar, 1 cup cream, 1 teaspoon butter. Boil without stirring until a little dropped in cold water will harden like glass, then take off the stove and stir rapidly.

Flavor with vanilla or any other extract liked. Nuts may be added. Pour on buttered plates and cut in squares when it is hard. —The Farmer's Advocate, circa 1915

Penuche With Walnuts

3/4 cup milk, 2-1/4 cups brown sugar, 3 tablespoons butter, 3/4 cup shelled walnuts; cook milk, butter, and sugar together until it forms a soft ball that will not stick to the fingers in cold water;

Remove from the fire and add walnuts; beat until it cleaves thickly to the spoon; pour on buttered plates.

Brown Sugar Penuche Candy

Two pounds of brown sugar, two-thirds cup of milk, butter size of a walnut. Boil about twenty minutes, then take off stove and beat and add one-half pound chopped walnuts. Pour on buttered plates.

Buttermilk Penuche

Boil together 2 cups sugar, 1 cup buttermilk, and butter size of a walnut until it forms a soft ball in water.

Remove from the fire and beat until creamy. Pour into buttered pans and cut in squares when cool. —The Farmer's Advocate, circa 1915

Old Fashioned Penuche Fudge Recipe

The Times Cook Book, No. 2 (1905)

Old Time Penuche / Cream Candy

One cup of coarsely chopped walnuts, 2 cups of light-brown sugar, 1 cup of pulverized sugar, 1 cup of sweet milk, 1 tablespoonful butter.

Cook until it will form a little ball by testing it in a shallow dish of water, then remove from fire, and add the walnuts, and flavor with teaspoonful of vanilla.

Beat mixture until it is creamy and turn out in buttered platter; cut in squares. This is a delicious cream candy fudge. —Hazel Rooklidge