In the Kitchen at Kilwins: Patience, Persistence & Peanut Butter Fudge
We've all heard the saying, "good things come to those who wait"; For us, we've never found the virtue of patience to be more valuable than when we had the opportunity to watch the chefs of Kilwins create their decadent peanut butter fudge. We learned all about how this carefully crafted dessert snack is not only made with homemade and exclusive ingredients, but also with a little patience and a whole lot of love!
It all begins with batching together the dry ingredients and whisking them with water and heat in a huge copper kettle! (This picture doesn't do it justice; but the kettle is huge!) This process took some time as Chef Dionne stirred, stirred and stirred some more until the ingredients were completely dissolved! What's key at this point is using the proper temperature control to prevent the fudge from sugaring before adding the butter. For some of us that aren't wise to the kitchen lingo, sugaring is when the ingredients aren't fully dissolved which can make the fudge grainier. However, that is not the case at Kilwins, as Chef Dionne is always on top of his game!
Next up, comes the transferring of the mixture and pouring between metal bars onto the marble table before topping it off with Kilwins' own peanut butter. This not only takes precision, but some muscle! It also took some will power on our end not to steal a spoon from the kitchen and dig in right there; yummy! Now, here's the part where patience is a virtue as the fudge cools to a sweet 100 degrees. A process that takes approximately ten minutes, but they were the best ten smelling minutes of our lives as the scent of fresh fudge swiftly filled the whole shop.
Since we were not able to dig into the peanut butter fudge just yet and patience really isn't our strong suit; we took the opportunity to sample Kilwins peanut butter ice cream. It helped us get through the waiting process and was absolutely incredible! By the way, the extensive variety and unique flavors of ice cream and sorbets at Kilwins deserve a blog for themselves, can you say mmm, mmm good?
Now let's get back to the fudge! Once cooled, the metal bars were removed and that's when the real show of fudge forming began and we found ourselves mesmerized with the careful, yet crafty way of rolling this snack into perfection.
Once again, the picture doesn't do it justice… click here to see the swift paddling moves of Chef Dionne.
We watched in amazement as the thick cascading liquid of fudge was slowly loafed into this beautifully formed sweet dessert.
Interesting Fudge Fact: to determine when to switch from paddling to loafing, look for the fudge to begin to lose its shiny appearance, taking on a dull sheen. It will also run more slowly; almost coming to a complete stop.
Now the moment of tasty truth. Once we were given the official, "okay, the making of the fudge is now complete." We immediately put out our hand for a free sample and let's just say, it was absolutely worth the wait and will be worth a weekly, okay maybe daily, stop into Kilwins Myrtle Beach at Broadway at the Beach.
It was love at first bite!