Sweet dreams are made of this

I plan to give a lot of homemade presents this year, so now is the time to dust off the recipe book and test run some sweet treats (that's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking to it).

This is a medium soft fudge, not as sloppy as some, but still with a nice 'give' as you sink your teeth into it.  The chocolate comes through strongly too, so it's a good one for chocoholics.

Dark chocolate fudge

550ml double cream
550g golden caster sugar
75g golden syrup
150g melted dark chocolate
a pinch of salt
(..and a sugar thermometer)

1) Pour the cream into a large pan with the sugar and golden syrup and add the sugar thermometer to the pan. Bring the mixture to the boil, then keep it bubbling over at a fairly rapid pace until it reaches 118c, then remove from the heat and stir in the melted chocolate.

2) Now you need to cool the fudge whilst keeping it moving to give it a really melting texture - the easiest way to do this is to use an electric hand whisk to beat it, but you can also do it by hand but it will take ten minutes or so... Beat the mixture until it reaches the consistency of glossy cake mixture, then pour into a lightly greased metal container (a loose bottomed cake tin is good) about 25cmx25cm, and allow to cool for several hours before turning out and cutting into small pieces.