Walnut fudge, also known as Milk and Cocoa fudge is a traditional East Indian sweet made for Christmas! Made in various shapes and sizes, chunks or molded, it’s also the perfect dish for a dinner with friends or a potluck. Try one and you can’t resist another!

Ever wondered why the traditional walnut fudge made by East Indians can be moulded? Me too! I haven’t found any real answer to this other than ‘It’s because we dry the milk a different way!’ or ‘It’s because we use the vanilla cream recipe!’ Anyways, if you’re wondering how to make the East Indian Walnut Fudge, here’s the full recipe.

What are the ingredients for the East Indian Walnut Fudge?

All you need to make this Christmas sweet is milk, sugar, butter, vanilla essence, ground walnuts, and cocoa powder or cacao powder.

How to make the East Indian Walnut Fudge?

You’ll find that this East Indian Milk and Cocoa Fudge or East Indian Walnut Fudge follows a similar process as the Vanilla Cream. There’s just a slight difference with the walnuts and the cocoa or cacao.

Start by grinding the walnuts to a powder and setting aside. A paste of the walnuts is okay to use too.

Start by boiling the milk on a low flame in a nonstick or thick-bottomed pan and letting it reduce until it’s nearly half or a third of the original quantity.

Next, add in the sugar and stir with a wooden spoon.

Once the sugar melts, add in the butter, powdered walnuts, cocoa powder or cacao powder, and vanilla essence and stir continuously till it thickens. Continue to stir for about an hour or so till the fudge starts to leave the sides.

When it does, do the ball test which is as follows. Take out a teaspoonful of fudge and cool. Butter your fingers, and try to form a ball with that fudge. If a ball forms, the fudge is ready to be moulded. If a ball doesn’t form, keep stirring, and try making a ball again after a few minutes. Repeat this process till the ball is formed; then pour out the fudge onto a greased tray and form into a large ball.

Fill the fudge dough into silicon moulds to form the shapes you desire. This recipe will make about 100 pieces.

I found it really difficult to find these types of molds outside India though. So if you can’t find them, use any other silicon molds shaped like Christmas trees or stars or other Christmas items and you’re good to go.

If you don’t want to take the trouble of moulding the coco fudge, you don’t have to go through the process of testing to form balls. When the walnut fudge starts to look dry, pour it onto a greased tray and cut into pieces. This will make it more like regular walnut fudge or the Indian akroth barfi.

If you’re a fan of cocoa, you can add an extra tablespoon to the mixture to get a darker color and richer taste. We do this sometimes. Other times, we don’t add any cocoa at all. It tastes absolutely different then. I prefer the version without cocoa, sis prefers the version with. Just like I prefer dark fruit cake with a mix of candied orange peel soaked in rum, while sis prefers her dark fruit cake with brandy.

Also, if you use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder, just reduce the quantity by 2/3rds because it’s a bit stronger.

In the end, it really depends on you, which version do you like to make. Anyways, that’s it for our recipe. Is it similar to how your East Indian family makes it?

If you’re not an East Indian and trying this recipe for the first time, leave me a review below or hop on over to my Facebook group and the pics of what you created there.

Other Recipes You Might Like

• Corned Beef Tongue
• Dal with bhat and tarkari
• Pancake recipes that aren’t sweet
• Semolina Date Cake
• East Indian Kimad