Alternates to butter in fudge?

[HazelStone]

Okay... for a while I've wanted to do up cookie/candy tins for friends and family at Christmas. Well, being unemployed I now have the time and energy!

 

This weekend I made the classic Hershey cocoa fudge...and am sneaking bites every time I'm in the kitchen. Shhhh! :wink (2): I will wrap up and throw at least half of it in the freezer for later but dang... I nailed this.

 

 

 

While the recipe uses "only" a half stick of butter, the stuff isn't getting any cheaper. For better inventory management I want to find out if there are any "shelf stable" fats that would work for fudge? (or frosting... but preferably not Crisco-ish stuff). Sweetie pushes back any time I try to stow lots of butter in the freezer. Or just knowing about alternatives is helpful in case of running out of the "usual" source of fat in a recipe.

 

In the debates about what kind of fats are "best," coconut oil comes up a lot. The cost is a little higher than butter but it is shelf stable.

 

Have any of you seen any info about using alternate fat sources in candy-making? 95% of any fudge recipes/write ups I see on the Internet are on the chocolate chip and condensed milk "method" for fudge. I'm just interested in other things I can rig up off the shelf should butter prices get worse or I find a great deal on different fat sources.

[CrabGrassAcres]

Coconut oil makes wonderful candy. It has a lower melting temp than butter and a better mouth feel.

[TheCG]

Most of my recipes are for pumpkin fudge, since I'm a pumpkin fiend. However, none of them don't use butter, and some of them could be entirely from storage. Quite a few do use coconut though, because I tend to look for recipes that are Paleo-ish. Note that some of these sites may involve some mild cussing.

 

Pumpkin Fudges:

 

http://www.cooks.com...-250204,00.html

 

http://thecoconutmam...dge-dairy-free/

 

White Chocolate Pumpkin Fudge: http://www.texanerin.com/2012/10/no-bake-white-chocolate-pumpkin-fudge.html

 

Peppermint Bark: http://www.glutenfre...rmint-bark.html

 

Double Layer (Chocolate!) Fudge: http://paleomg.com/double-layer-fudge/

 

Low Sugar Chocolate Fudge: http://www.joyfulabo...hocolate-fudge/

Edited November 12, 2012 by TheCG

[lumabean]

CGA, would it be an even exchange amount wise for the coconut oil in place of the butter?

[CrabGrassAcres]

Yes, I used the same amounts.