Buckeye Fudge Candy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Buckeye candy made of? ›

Buckeyes are a confection made from a peanut butter fudge partially dipped in chocolate to leave a circle of peanut butter visible. Buckeyes are similar to peanut butter balls (or peanut-butter-filled chocolate balls), which are completely covered in chocolate.

How to Store Buckeyes. Buckeyes are fine to sit out at room temperature on holiday cookie plates for up to 24 hours, though if you're keeping them around for longer than that, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator where they'll stay fresh for up to 2 weeks. Buckeyes also freeze super well.

INGREDIENTS: sugar, water, corn syrup solids, butter (cream, salt), chocolate processed with alkali, cream powder (cream, nonfat milk solids, sodium caseinate), palm oil with soya lecithin, evaporated milk (milk, dipotassium phosphate, carrageenan, Vitamin D), sea salt, salt, vanillin - an artificial flavor.

Sugar Crystals Formed

It's important to beat the fudge ingredients to develop the right texture, but you won't get smooth, creamy fudge if you beat it when it's too hot. Beating fudge when it's still over heat creates sugar crystals, aka the grittiness you feel in the fudge.

Many Michiganders are Buckeye fans; that is, the traditional homemade candy in the Midwest called the Buckeye ball.

The buckeye candy resembles the nut of the buckeye tree, with a shiny, dark brown exterior and light brown "eye." The story goes that buckeye's name came from Native Americans who thought the glossy, chestnut-brown seed resembled the eye of, you guessed it, a buck (that's a male deer, for you city folk).

Poisonous Plant: All parts of the plant (leaves, bark, fruit) are highly toxic if ingested – because of the glycoside aesculin, the saponin aescin, and possibly alkaloids. Symptoms are muscle weakness and paralysis, dilated pupils, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, paralysis, and stupor.

As well as the belief in the good fortune of its storied seed, the buckeye has been held to cure rheumatism and other, more minor ailments. Pioneering farm families also made soap from the kernels of buckeye seeds, and many a child's cradle was carved from the wood of this tree.

The seeds are poisonous to humans in the raw state. Thus, the nuts were cracked open with a rock, the shells removed, the seeds pounded into flour, and their toxic saponins removed in a lengthy leaching process. The meal was subsequently cooked and eaten.

While fudge was not invented on Mackinac Island, it most certainly – and most deliciously – was perfected here.

What makes Mackinac Island fudge different? ›

To obtain the world famous taste, the fudge is slowly cooked in traditional copper kettles over a gas flame. Once the desired temperature is reached, the mixture is poured onto marble slabs for a cooling period and then hand-paddled into loaves.

There are easier, quicker, and less expensive ways to make it, but we still hand-craft these products because the quality is better. We have been expertly molding and enrobing (coating) Chocolates with the same equipment and processes since 1965.

It's actually just a scientific process called “chocolate bloom”. There are two types of this bloom: sugar bloom and fat bloom. Sugar bloom happens when moisture comes in contact with the chocolate - it dissolves the sugar crystals on the chocolate's surface, leaving a white, powdery look.

Cream of tartar is used in caramel sauces and fudge to help prevent the sugar from crystallizing while cooking. It also prevents cooling sugars from forming brittle crystals, this is why it's the secret ingredient in snickerdoodles!

Buckeyes taste like peanut butter cups with an emphasis on the peanut butter! Not too sweet, really creamy, and so satisfying.

Seeds resemble edible chestnuts, but Ohio buckeye fruits are not edible and can be toxic. Seeds of Ohio buckeye should not be allowed to dry out. They can be stored for short periods (1 year) in air tight containers in the refrigerator if not allowed to dry out.

Chocolate buckeyes are peanut butter bonbons partially dipped in chocolate. Part of the light-colored filling is left un-coated giving the candy the appearance of a buckeye nut. While the buckeye nut is poisonous, the buckeye treat is delicious.