Healthy Real Food snacks - CHOCOLATE and FUDGE

Suitable for GAPS, SCD, Paleo, gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, low carb or other whole food diets.

I first discovered creamed coconut (also known as coconut butter) in a faded orange box, in the international section of our local supermarket, many years before it became trendy. It made the most amazing sugar free date or apricot fudge, and was very popular in our house. It wasn’t always easy to find, so when one of our wholesalers started importing it, we were thrilled.

Creamed coconut is different to coconut oil, as it is all of the flesh ground up smooth, rather than just extracted oil. This makes it much thicker. It’s excellent for all sorts of snack bars, and for adding to soups, smoothies and other recipes.

Prepping your creamed coconut

After these recipes get you salivating and rushing out to buy some, you’ll most likely find it in a jar, in your local health food store. And you might find that most of it is a creamy colour, but that it has a layer of coconut oil on the top. If that’s the case, you’ll need to mix it up before using it.

Put the jar of creamed coconut in a container of hot water for 5 minutes or so, until it’s soft enough to scrape out of the jar. Then place it into a food processor, and process till very smooth. If you’re not making this recipe, pour it back into the jar, and it won’t separate out again. It will be ready for adding to any recipes where you want some extra coconutty goodness. Otherwise, you’ll be ready to add the extra ingredients.

Basic White Chocolate

The basic recipe is not very sweet, and is a suitable recipe if you are on a low sugar diet such as GAPS, AIP or FODMAPS. The cacao (or cocoa) butter gives it a chocolatey richness that compensates. If you’re on a less strict diet, that allows whole food sweeteners, you’ll find some variations below.

• 500ml jar creamed coconut
• 100gm coconut oil
• 100gm cacao (raw) or cocoa butter

If needed, put your creamed coconut jar in hot water. Meanwhile, cut the cacao butter into small pieces and melt in a small pan over a low heat. Place all ingredients into a food processor, and process till very smooth. Pour into a Swiss roll tin, lined with baking paper. Refrigerate or freeze till solid, then cut into squares. Or pour it into chocolate moulds to make festive shapes. Or pour into mini cupcake cases. Serve direct from the fridge as it melts easily.

Basic Fudge

• To make it less like chocolate and more like fudge, reduce the coconut oil and cacao butter to 50gm each. This will make it more stable at room temperature too.

Variations

Start with either the chocolate or fudge version. There are many different variations, and you are limited only by your imagination. All of the quantities shown below are approximate, and can be adjusted to suit your palate.

If you are on GAPS or SCD, the variations with cocoa / cacao or carob are not legal in the early stages.
If you are on a less restricted diet, you can add a little honey or other natural sweetener. Honey is difficult to incorporate if the mix is runny, so add later when it is more set.

Vanilla

• add vanilla essence or powder to taste. Powder is nice swirled through.
• Optional – add dried fruit

Apricot Fudge

• add 10-15 dried apricots and blitz till they are mostly incorporated but still with a little texture

Date Caramel

• add about 10 dates and blitz till they are mostly incorporated but still with a little texture

Orange or Lemon

• add 1-2 Tbs of grated zest. (optional – add some citrus oil or essence)

Xmas Cake

• add 1-2 tsp of ginger or mixed spice to the Orange or Lemon recipe. Then mix in a cup or so of dried fruit that would be in a Xmas cake eg currants, raisins, sultanas.

White Xmas

• Start with a vanilla base. Add ½ cup of currants, sultanas or raisins and ½ cup of brighter coloured chopped dried fruit eg. dried strawberries, apricots, pawpaw, pineapple.

Carob

• add 1-2 Tbs carob and some vanilla to taste, for a chocolate substitute. Carob is already sweet, so you might not need sweetener.

Carob Caramel

• add 1-2 Tbs carob and 1 Tbs mesquite and swirl through.
• Optional – add some dried fruit

Chocolate

• add 3-4 Tbs cocoa or raw cacao powder, depending how dark you like your chocolate. With this version, you will need some sweetener to offset the bitter

Choco nut

• Make either Chocolate, Carob or Carob Caramel, then stir through chopped nuts

Black forest

• Make either Chocolate, Carob or Carob Caramel, then crush some freeze dried cherries over the top.
• Optional – add nuts as well.

Mocha

• add some freeze dried coffee to a Chocolate mix for a crunchy mocha mix

Stuffed dates

• get some fresh dates, take out the stones, and fill with the basic mix

Dipped Berries

• dip fresh strawberries, other berries or cherries in White Chocolate, Carob, Chocolate or Caramel, by half filling a mini cupcake case with mix then inserting the berry

Thanks for reading.

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My other recipes on Steemit: Choc Blackcurrant Smoothie ~ Paleo Cottage Pie ~ Feijoa Pear Smoothie ~ Easy no-starch, dairy free Pumpkin & Cashew Bread ~ Tip for storing ginger & tumeric ~ Banana Cashew muffins ~ Warming winter soup

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