I made an attempt to make the "more chewy" vanilla fudge that you can buy. I read online that glucose, for example from corn syrup, is what retards crystalisation. Though, I've also read arguments claiming that chewy fudge isn't proper fudge, and it's meant to be crystalised and fragile.

Anyhow, not having any corn syrup, I was searching around, and found a page claiming that golden syrup can be used as a substitute for corn syrup. So I made a "fudge recipe" with the following amounts.

Two tablespoons (not cook's tablespoons, but what I have in my draws) of golden syrup. Added to normal sugar to make up 3/4 lb. Added 1 oz of pure margarine and a pinch of salt.

(apologies for the imperial measurements, I was working from an old cookbook)

I then cooked as per fudge. I brought it very slowly to the boil, stirring frequently, until it started to boil. I then put the lid on and it allowed it to boil up the sides to get rid of any crystals (given what happened later, this is probably unnecessary ). Then I took the lid off, put my sugar thermometer in place, and let it boil slowly on minimum (gas ring) temp until it reached soft ball stage, 240F.

I then left it to cool down to 110F. When it reached that temp, I added two teaspoons of vanilla essence. I then started to mix it, expecting it to lighten in colour and thicken, as normally happens for fudge. It was very thick and sticky. And while after some effort, it did seem to have gone lighter, it was showing no sign of crystalising. After a while I gave up, and "spooned" the very sticky mixture out into a greased pyrex tray. After leaving it for a long while to cool right down, I went back and had a look. It had cooled down and hardened, but no sign of crystallisation at all. What I had was a hard but pliable substance very much like a chewy toffee. It was hard enough to "cut" with some difficulty, but when eaten, melted in the mouth reasonably quickly. It wasn't as hard as "bite at it and hope that the toffee breaks before your teeth do" English Toffee. The taste wasn't quite traditional, but quite nice. It was a bit translucent, not opaque like English toffee.

I think this "substance" would work very well cut into squares and coated with chocolate. I'm also hoping to try and use it to make some "toffee pops". I'm not sure what these are called here, but in New Zealand we had biscuits called Toffee Pops. They were a plain biscuit base, a layer of chewy toffee on top of the biscuit, and then they were coated in chocolate.

If I made it again, I would halve, at least, the vanilla.