Easy (Healthy) Vegan Fudge

Recently I had a random craving for rich, melt-in-your-mouth, chocolately fudge. However, being a very health conscious vegetarian, I knew there was no way the fudge from Hallmark or Gertrude Hawk would ever do, as it’s most likely laden with sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup, dairy in the form of milk and butter, and eggs. No, I needed something else.

Googling organic fudge and vegan fudge, I was pleasantly surprised with the number of results.  There are quite a few online stores selling bars of organic fudge, and numerous recipes for the latter. The online store, Allison’s Gourmet, not only sells home-made, organic, vegan fudge, but also brownies, cookies, and other organic, animal-friendly treats. Whole Foods most likely sells organic or natural fudge as well. But I wanted to be daring (and save some money) and make my own.

A bit of browsing finally led me to this recipe from Tasty Planner for a healthier vegan version of the decadent dessert, which I am going to try out as soon as possible. It doesn’t require a lot of steps or ingredients and sounds really yummy. This is also great if you’re still craving chocolate after eating all that Halloween candy!

Ingredients

Makes 36-40 servings

• 4 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
• 12 ounces coconut milk (pure coconut milk with nothing added, i.e. Thai kitchen brand)
• 18 ounces vegan chocolate
• 1/2 lb extra virgin coconut oil
• 3 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 1 nuts, of your choice or raisins

Instructions

1. Bring to a boil the sugar and milk, and let it boil exactly six minutes, stirring constantly. (If you can do this over a double-boiler it will help, but it isn’t required.)
2. In another pan or bowl, have the chocolate, oil, vanilla extract and salt ready. You can use chocolate chips or good quality bar chococate. The better the quality of chocolate, the better the fudge.
3. Pour hot mixture of sugar and milk over the other ingredients, and blend together until all the chocolate has melted.
4. Add nuts- whatever type you prefer, and in the size you prefer in fudge.
5. Pour into pan and set for six hours in the fridge until the fudge has set.

Who said fudge couldn’t be healthy? Enjoy!