Up till a month ago I wouldn't have had a clue what condensed milk was all about or why you anybody would buy it. All that changed when I volunteered to arrange the favours for my brothers wedding later this year. I thought it would be pretty simple, bought sweets in bags, tea light candles, alcohol miniatures, you know the sorts of things I mean. A nice gesture from me but pretty easy to sort. Well all I can say is I am glad I am pretty much the colour of a bottle of milk already, this way nobody could see the colour drain from my face when my sister in law to be said she liked the idea of giving out home made sweets to all their guests!

I love my brothers fiancée to bits and she is absolutely perfect for my little brother and has given him direction and goals in life that I think he would have never found without her. The problem is she is absolutely perfect at everything, brilliant job, top marks in the year at uni, good at sports, cooking and baking she is also a really nice person. I could just picture the perfect, beautiful wedding with everyone commenting how nice it was that she let a small child make her wedding favours.

This is where my search began, trawling the internet for recipes for home made sweets. I went through several recipes that involved chocolates that melted one hour after they came out of the fridge and created a complete mess to home made fudge, which set as toffee that will break your teeth (not ideal for a dentists wedding) as I couldn't get the temperature quite right.

After several disasters in my kitchen I discovered a very simple recipe which called for condensed milk as the main ingredient. As this meant to be a review of condensed milk ill talk about that first, then tell you all about my simple home made fudge.

For some reason the can comes in a tin containing 397g of Nestle sweetened condensed milk, I have no idea why they don't make this 400g but I'm sure there must be some reason behind it. The ingredients are whole milk, skimmed milk and sugar. The nutritional information is pretty scary, per 50mls it contains 163 calories and 4.1 grams of fat so its probably best not to have the can for a drink!

On opening the can you can see that the milk is a white/cream colour which has a thick consistency. If you pour it off a spoon there will be a coating left behind on the spoon. The taste is exactly what you would expect from sugar and milk combined, absolutely sickly sweet. I had one table spoon full in the interest of writing this review and there is no way I could eat more and I do have a sweet tooth. Once opened you have to keep the milk in the fridge and use it within 3 days. The current price per can is £1.37 in Tesco which does seem pretty pricey and as yet I have not found it on special offer.

The can I bought is not the same as the one in the dooyoo picture, the whole can is red ant there is a picture of caramel shortbread on it instead of the pie that appears on this picture. There is actually a very simple recipe on the can to make the caramel shortbread, I gave this a go and it really is easy and tastes so much better than shop bought as you can use a good thick layer of the caramel when you make it yourself.

As much as I would love to have made the caramel shortbread for the wedding favours I feel that they might make a bit of a mess if they are left out of the fridge for too long.

This is the recipe I found to make for my brothers wedding favours.

Ingredients.

200g bar plain milk or white chocolate
½ x 397g can sweetened condensed milk
50g chopped nuts, which ever you like the taste of (or you can leave out) pecans or hazelnuts are really nice
50g dried fruit, sultanas and cranberries are really nice in it, again you can leave the fruit out if you prefer
100g icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
Caster sugar, to sprinkle on the top.

Method.

1.Line a square tin measuring about 20cm x 20cm with greaseproof paper.
2.Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Add the condensed milk and place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl is not in contact with the water. I found I had to continuously stir to prevent the chocolate burning on the bottom of the bowl.
3.Heat gently until the chocolate is completely melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the fruit and nuts if you are using them. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract and stir until evenly combined. This mixture will become like a toffee consistency and will be difficult to stir when it is ready.
4.Spoon the mixture into the tin and level the surface with the back of the spoon. Chill for at least 2 hours until the fudge is firm.
5.Lift out of the tin and remove the paper. Dust the surface lightly with the sugar. Using a sharp knife cut the fudge into small 1cm squares.

The whole process took me about 15 minutes and is really easy to do. I'm not too sure how long they last as they always get eaten within a couple of days. I do normally keep them in the fridge but my partner took some to work in an airtight container and he tells me they didn't become sticky or melt throughout the day.

I am really happy with how these sweets have turned out and will be making up small bags with seven pieces of fudge in each one for the 120 wedding guests! I have to admit I was nervous on giving them to my brother and his partner to try but they loved them and were more than happy for them to be given out as wedding favours.

We have decided on three flavours

Dark chocolate with hazelnuts, orange peel and orange essence instead of vanilla.
Milk chocolate with pecans and raisins.
White chocolate with almonds and cranberries

Everyone will get a combination of the 3 flavours. Having never before in my 28 years bought a can of condensed milk I can say for sure that I am a convert and they will be getting much more business from me in the future. I already plan to make bags up for people at Christmas time.