More Healthy Fudge

On Monday, I did a post on healthy chocolate fudge.  I had a mega chocolate craving on Friday evening, and I was all out of the raw brownies.  No sugar for Lent (and a general goal of no packet chocolate this year if at all possible) meant I would be stuck just imagining chocolate.  Then, I remembered a) I had yoghurt and cocoa, so there was a quick fix, and b) the healthy chocolate fudge recipe suggested some substitutions, one of them being just normal butter instead of coconut oil.  Hmmm.  I figured, if you could substitute regular butter, surely you could use peanut butter?

I have to be very careful when giving up chocolate that I don't compensate with peanut butter.  And vice versa.  I was getting rather tired of eating nuts and avocado for my good fat portions, and so I tried a 'just nuts' peanut butter.  The price is enough to make me good and not eat huge quantities all at once.  Having been really good, I then looked further, and found a tub (!) of organic 100% nuts peanut butter.  I have to admit that I am still rather generous in portion size.  However, this was perfect for a peanut butter substitution in fudge!  So, this week's fudge:

In a mini chopper, blend 1/2 cup 100% nuts peanut butter, 1/2 cup cacao, 1/3 cup honey, and about a 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  Line a loaf tin with baking paper, transfer the fudge (it formed a ball of dough quite quickly), fold the sides of baking paper over the fudge, and squish until you have a fairly consistent 1/2 inch thickness.  Transfer to fridge or freezer until set. 

Normally, I wouldn't have posted another food item so soon, especially not one so similar, but this is too good not to share!  Just a small amount (2 x 1.5cm squares) is really satisfying, super chocolate-y, just sweet enough, and so fudge-y it's delightful.  Plus, this batch was way more successful than the last lot.  Thanks to the baking paper tip, I don't have to pick small bits of plastic out before I eat.  And I think using the quite thick consistency of peanut butter instead of the rather liquid coconut oil made all the difference in the general ease of making this batch - it formed a dough quickly, it was far less messy to transfer, and it doesn't attach itself to anything and everything.  Reducing the amount of honey was handy, too - the last batch was ridiculously sweet, but I don't feel I'm about to succumb to a sugar coma with this.  It was also amazingly quick to make.  It took longer to assemble the ingredients and measure them than it did to blend and transfer and squish.  Big win, especially late on a Friday night. 

Healthy Chocolate Fudge

I only just realised I had neglected to post this.  Getting into the whole healthy chocolate thing (you know - chocolate, but guilt-free - SCORE!!!), a friend suggested chocolate fudge.  I browsed for recipes and found plenty, then picked this one from Better Nutrition - find the recipe here.

I must stress (as if it wasn't obvious) that my fudge looked nothing like their fudge.  So different, in fact, that I had to read it carefully to check it was actually the same recipe.  My version, then:

Ingredients
1/2 cup coconut oil (this had already turned liquid so I could skip the official step 1)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup honey (I would reduce the amount for next time, it was super sweet)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Method
Because I could skip step 1, it seemed a bit superfluous to use a food processor-type thing.  So I combined all the ingredients in a bowl, and mixed until combined.
I lined my loaf pan with plastic wrap (mistake!), scraped the fudge into the tin (very messy), folded the top of the plastic wrap over the fudge, and gently pressed down to even the thickness.  Aiming for thickness of about a half inch, mine covered about 2/3 of the base of the tin. 
Into the freezer until set (about 30 minutes).  Cut into squares to serve.

Technically, between the last 2 sentences should be another: carefully remove the plastic wrap from the bits of fudge that froze around it.  This took a long time, and I got too impatient.  Such a painstaking process (including melting fudge), so I admitted I would probably find slivers of plastic wrap while I was eating.  Not ideal, but I could deal with it.

The friend who recommended fudge then recommended a different recipe, and (more importantly) using baking paper instead of plastic wrap or foil.  I predict another fudge-making experience soon - stay tuned.