Fudge topped gingerbread squares

Question: What do you get if you combine this…. 

 

... with this...?

 

Insanely delicious slices of gingerbread fudge of course!!

Chill them in the fridge for a firm nutty bottom layer and a soft and fudgy top layer to sink your teeth into…perfect for serving in pretty little squares.  

These fudge slice isn't really anything new as I simply combined and layered up two of my favourite recipes, but I think it sheds a whole new light on healthy sweets! So pretty and delicate and perfect for sharing as a tea time treat or to wrap in cellophane and ribbons and give as a gift.  

Think of all the flavour combos...you could have a peanut base with a strawberry frosting, chocolate base with a mint or banana fudge frosting, almond base with a marzipan frosting....all the variations are whizzing through my mind!

Ok that’s enough dreaming... the recipes for each element were originally posted here and here, but I have re-written them below for ease.  Prepare and chill the base and then then prepare and roll out  the frosting layer. Drape over the bottom layer whilst pressing firmly... et voila!  Cut into squares (or whatever shape you like).  Note: Slice into smaller pieces than in the photos as these are very dense and filling indeed!

Recipe: Gingerbread fudge

Makes approx. 20 small squares

Ingredients- gingerbread base (double these ingredients to match the fudge quantities)

120g dates

25g almonds

35g cashews

20g raisins

40g ground oats*

30g buckwheat flour

10g chia seeds

1tbs sliced fresh ginger

1tbs ground ginger

½ tsp mixed spice

½ tsp cinnamon

Ingredients- fudge topping

½  can black beans- rinsed and drained

1 mashed banana

½ cup cocoa powder (or raw cacoa powder)

1/3 cup dates

2 tsp vanilla extract

½  tsp cinnamon

½ tsp stevia

½ cup ground oats*

2 tbs ground flax

2 tbs chia seeds

Method:

Starting with the gingerbread base; blend the ingredients together very well.  Press the mixture into a loaf tin, or any tin of an appropriate size so that you have approx. 15mm thickness.

Chill the base layer in the fridge whilst you prepare the fudge.

Blend all the ingredients together to achieve a thick soft dough. Using two pieces of baking parchment, if necessary, roll the fudge to approx. 10mm thick. Remove the gingerbread from the fridge and lift from its tin.

Drape the fudge layer carefully across the gingerbread pressing firmly onto the surface. You may have some fudge remaining (you can form this into balls ro bars). Trim the excess and cut into squares using s sharp knife.

These will keep in the fridge for a week or two. They should also freeze well since I have successfully frozen the gingerbread and fudge elements individually.

 

You can find all of my 'no bake treats' here.

 * for further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

‘Secret ingredient’ Dark chocolate ice cream

Ok so I made you wait…and wait!

You first saw it melting into the choc-chunk cookie pie, but now here we have it in its own right. My super healthy dark chocolate ice cream. Top it with nuts, sprinkles, coconut flakes or a chocolate drizzle, this ice cream is light and refreshing whilst packing a substantial punch…all due to its secret ingredient…

Black beans!

Yup, another spin on the worlds healthiest fudge, further fuelled by the success with this chocolate frosting, it was only a matter of time before the worlds healthiest chocolate ice cream was born!

Perfect teamed with a warm dessert, served soft with layers of fruit or spooned into a cone to enjoy drippy ice cream in the sun shine. The sunshine actually came out today…whoooo!

I call this dark chocolate ice cream as it has a richly intense slightly ‘bitter’ dark chocolate flavour (bitter is not the best word to use- but I hope you know what I mean!) Using coconut milk may give a creamier result (not I have not tried it that way). You could easily jazz up this recipe with mix-ins of coconut, cookie chunks, chocolate drops…..

I topped this cone with a simple chocolate drizzle made with agave syrup, cocoa and melted coconut oil. I mixed approx. 1 teaspoon of each together to create a thickish runny chocolate sauce which froze upon contact with the cold ice cream.
                                                                                                                                                                            

Recipe: Dark chocolate ice cream

Makes approx. 600ml

Ingredients

1 batch fudge- see below

1 ½ cup ‘milk’

3 tbs agave

30ml rum (I used Malibu)

Fudge ingredients:

½  can black beans- rinsed and drained

1 mashed banana

½ cup cocoa powder (or raw cacoa powder)

1/3 cup dates

2 tsp vanilla extract

½  tsp cinnamon

½ tsp stevia

½ cup ground oats**

2 tbs ground flax

2 tbs ground chia seeds

Method

Mix up the fudge by combining all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients to the fudge dough and blend until you have a thick smooth liquid of yoghurt like consistency. Pour into a freezer container with easily removable lid. Place in the freezer for a few hours until solid, stirring twice every hour or two as it begins to solidify.

You can either serve in a semi-frozen state as a ‘soft serve’ dessert, or wait until fully set.

Note: once frozen it will freeze hard due to low fat and sugar content. Taking the ice cream out of the freezer and placing in the fridge 30 mins before serving will help soften it up a little. The alcohol content helps to make a more uniform softness, without it the softening process takes longer and is less consistent (although the resultant ice cream still tastes good!)

Note: I do not have an ice cream maker so have not tried using that method.

* This cone is not vegan or gluten free. I made this particular ice cream for my sister who isn’t vegan and this was the only option available to me. I know vegan and gluten free cones are available- Barkat and Escal are two such brands that are available in the UK.

** for further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Valentine's cookie sandwich

My last Valentine’s recipe is here! I can’t believe how organised I’ve been. I usually miss the holiday themed recipe opportunities…or only realise at the very last minute, so I’m pleased with my early preparations.

Let’s hope as you are reading this that I am cosied up in a little cottage in the middle of Herefordshire…and not stuck in a blizzard somewhere, since the weather conditions at the time of writing (just gone midnight into Friday morning) were somewhat suspect with snow and ‘freezing rain’ forecast…hmmm not the best start to a holiday!

For this final recipe I just couldn’t get this fudge out of my mind- it is simply so good and so easy to make! Here I’ve rolled it out so that shapes can be made with a cutter and it performs the job just beautifully. Sprinkle with a little coconut and stop here if you like.  But I didn’t want to stop there, I wanted to add a little bit of pink!

I played around with the ‘pink’ options for quite some time. I wanted to create a similar raw ‘smoosh’ recipe so that the whole process was very quick and simple. To take a pink dye the basic dough needed to be light in colour so the two options I trialled were marzipan and cookie dough.

The marzipan still needs a little more work in my opinion as I think the almond flour makes the marzipan stick the roof of your mouth a little as you eat it but the marzipan recipe original seen here was too oily for rolling. The overall taste is good and it forms the shapes well, but for me the texture is not 100%- but then again I am very picky when it comes to textures. I preferred the cookie dough option and this worked best with the chocolate layer on the outside as the cookie dough is very soft and quite sticky whilst the fudge is firmer to touch and so seemed to work best that way round. As you can see I have tried various options here- feel free to vary things and experiment with your own layering!

I also pressed a little desiccated coconut on the chocolate sandwiches to give a pretty delicate finish…this was my favourite option!

Recipe: Valentines cookie sandwich

Makes anywhere between 20-40 heart sandwiches (depending on size of hearts and method used)

Ingredients- chocolate layer (fudge)

½  can black beans- rinsed and drained

1 small mashed banana

½ cup cocoa powder (or raw cacoa powder for an even healthier boost)

1/3 cup dates

2 tsp vanilla extract

½  tsp cinnamon

¼  tsp stevia

½ cup ground oats

2 tbs ground flax

2 tbs chia seeds

Ingredients- pink layer

Option A- marzipan

½ cup ground almonds

¼ cup almond flour

2tbs tapioca or arrowroot

¼ cup coconut butter

2tbs agave (tiny pinch spelt)

1 tsp almond extract (more if needed to taste)

1tbs water (as necessary to form dough)

1-2 drops red food colouring

Option B- cookie dough

2/3 cup cashews
1/3 cup oats
4tbs agave
1 Tsp vanilla extract

3tbs dried cranberries

1-2 drops red food colouring (for a stronger pink colour)

Method (for all):

Blend all dry ingredients in a food processor. Add wet ingredients and then blend again. The dough should be fairly tacky but not too sticky and should still be easy to handle.

Roll out, chill if needed and use cookie cutter to cut out hearts for each sandwich. Assemble in desired fashion and store in an air tight container.

 marzipan hearts with chocolate fudge centres

cranberry cookie hearts with a chocolate fudge centre

coconut chocolate fudge hearts with a soft cookie centre

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

The worlds healthiest fudge

This wasn’t supposed to be a fudge recipe.

This was supposed to be an energy power bar recipe!

It still is an energy bar recipe…..it just so happened to turn into fudge too….crazy things do sometimes happen!

Now, before you get ahead of yourself, these little treats aren’t identical to fudge…so don’t go expecting a regular sugar loaded, melt in your mouth (furry teeth inducing) fudge morsel.  These little treats are full of healthy ingredients, are sugar free and have a really soft but firm, chocolatey,  fudgey bite to them, I find them really moreish and the only word I could use to describe them is…well…fudgey!

Perfect for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up or a post work-out protein boost.  What provides the protein…black beans of course!

I have lots of notes and saved recipes from websites and books for various types of granola bars, energy bars, baked bars, raw bars….. and these bars were inspired by Enlightened Cooking who’s power bar recipe can be found here.  I was intrigued by the simple concept, having used beans plenty of times in my baking before, but never in a raw form. My recipe followed closely along the same lines with a few tweaks of my own.

The ‘dough’ is so simple to prepare and very easy to handle. It is also very ‘accommodating’, and by that I mean it holds together really well, so I imagine it could take all sort of mix-ins without a problem….chunks of nuts, fruits, chocolate chips. Feel free to experiment with your favourite flavours. I have used both cranberry and coconut here.

Recipe: black bean energy ‘fudge’

Makes approx 10 slices

Ingredients

200g  or ½ can black beans- rinsed and drained

1 medium mashed banana

½ cup cocoa powder (or raw cacoa powder for an even healthier boost)

1/3 cup dates

2 tsp vanilla extract

½  tsp cinnamon

¼  tsp stevia

½ cup ground oats

2 tbs ground flax

2 tbs chia seeds (optional)

Optional:

Dessicated coconut to coat

Cranberries (or other dried fruit)- finely chopped and mixed through

Method

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blend until a smooth dough is formed. Add additional dried fruit here also if using. The dough should be fairly tacky but not sticky and should be easy to handle.

Form a log of dough approx. 5cm in diameter. Roll the log in desiccated coconut if desired.

Using a sharp knife, cut the log into rounds approx. 1-2cm thick. Store in a sealed contained in the fridge for up to a week. (these also freeze well).

Note: to form ‘bars’ divide the dough and roll into individual logs and flatten slightly.

 The fudge log before it was cut into pieces, see how soft and malleable the dough looks...just waiting for all those creative mix-ins!

By now you probably already know I've used beans to pack a protein punch and substitute some of the fats in many of my recipes (i don't stop going on about them)..... check out my blondies, my brownie torte and my sticky toffee pudding.  I have also made a few raw energy bars.... like my absolute favourite choc-orange smoosh bars, my power cubes and my raw gingerbread.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.