What on earth are you going to take to your next potluck that’s going to be safe and healthy for everyone to eat?
This simple nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge is easily the best answer you’ll find all year.
Why, you ask? Let me explain:
- It’s fabulously low in allergens, being nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, salt-free, refined-sugar-free, soy-free, egg-free and can be made oil-free
- It’s raw, vegan and paleo
- It can be made entirely with whole, unrefined ingredients
- It has chocolate in it
- It takes barely 5 minutes to make (and just 2 hours to freeze)
- It only requires a bowl, a spoon and a suitable container to mould it into
- It’s freaking, totally, amazingly, incredibly, insanely delicious
What more do you need to be convinced that you’ve just stumbled over the most freaking awesome nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge recipe in the entire world?
You can whip this up in no time at all and take it any social function, safe in the knowledge that pretty much anyone can eat it.
The only things that take any time, are blending up some date paste and melting/making the coconut butter.
But you have options to make those steps even easier if you want to, as well.
I was super excited when I developed this nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge, even more so than when I developed the original version that uses almond butter.
And I think anyone you share this with will feel the same.
I know my daughter’s teacher was utterly thrilled when I sent this off to camp to share, because finally, she had something she could eat!
What a pleasure to be able to share the joy of good food with the people you care about.
The only question now is, can you bear to part with a single piece of this decadent nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge?
Nut-Free Raw Vegan Chocolate Fudge recipe
Make sure to read the tips below the recipe to get the most out of this delicious nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge recipe.
Easy Nut-Free Raw Vegan Chocolate Fudge
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup sunflower seed butter or pumpkin seed butter or any seed butter (70g)
- 1/6 cup coconut butter / paste or coconut oil, melted (40g)
- 6 tsp cacao powder (13g)
- 1/4 cup date paste or liquid sweetener (70g) *
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut , fine (50g)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla bean powder or 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Melt the coconut butter (or coconut oil) in a dehydrator or over a double boiler.
- Add in the sunflower seed butter and mix until smooth.
- Add the cacao powder, date paste (or liquid sweetener) and vanilla bean powder and mix thoroughly.
- Add the shredded coconut and mix until evenly combined.
- Press into a suitable mould and place in the freezer for two hours.
- Pop out of the mould and slice into bite sized pieces.
- Store in the fridge for as long as it lasts ;)
Preparation
- Before: 15 mins (to melt coconut butter and/or make date paste)
- During: 5 mins
- After: 2 hours (to freeze)
- Need: Bowl, freezer
Notes
* Date paste is a blend of dates and water in the ratio 100g dates to 40g water (see "Tips" for more info)Nutrition Information
Tips
- The sunflower seed butter adds a rich creaminess to this recipe that I really like, so I don’t recommend leaving it out. Without the butter, the fudge ends up being quite dense and rich, and lacks body to balance out the sweet and the chocolate flavours. But if you’re dead-set against using any kind of butter, give it a go, and just be aware that it will be a more intense experience.
- I tried a couple of different nut-free options when I was developing this recipe, including sunflower butter and pumpkin seed butter, but I decided that I preferred the sunflower butter version. As much as I love my pumpkin seed butter, I found that it overwhelmed the balance of flavours, so I settled with using sunflower seed butter.
- The sunflower seed butter does have a very slight bitter aftertaste, more so than if you make this fudge with raw almond butter. But then of course it’s not nut-free. You could also try tahini, but it does have quite a strong flavour, and many people are allergic to sesame seeds these days anyway. In fact, you can use any nut-free seed butter you like in this recipe, but just be aware that each will add its own taste, and the stronger the seed butter flavour, the more likely it is to clash. So you’ll just have to try them out and see which you like best. (Mmmm, more fudge experiments to eat.)
- Coconut butter (also called coconut paste) is made from dried, shredded coconut. You just process it for a while in a food processor, and after it goes through a few stages, it turns into a buttery paste that you can use in cooking. Or you can also buy it from health food shops already made for you. Either way, you’ll need to melt it into a liquid form before you can use it.
- You can substitute the coconut butter with coconut oil without affecting the recipe too much. I’ve done it both ways and they both work. If you do use coconut oil, you’ll find that the fudge has a slightly oilier texture (and is also higher in fat), and it won’t hold together very well at room temperature, but then I recommend storing this fudge in the fridge anyway. I also found that the fudge tastes faintly of chocolate crackles when you use coconut oil, which brings back fond memories from my childhood.
- Cacao power is just raw cocoa beans, ground into a powder. If you don’t have any, you can use unsweetened cocoa, which is made from roasted cocoa beans, so it’s basically the same thing. The fudge will taste pretty much the same. Just be sure to use unsweetened cocoa or you might end up with an insanely sweet slice.
- I haven’t tried making this fudge with carob, but I’m keen to give it a try. This nut-free raw vegan fudge base is pretty robust, so I’m thinking that it should cope really well with swapping out the cacao out for other powdered flavours, like carob or maybe even lucuma or berry powders. That said, I haven’t tried any of these yet myself, so I could be totally wrong ;)
- I used date paste in this recipe so that I didn’t have to use extracted sugars. To make date paste, I just blend a cup of dates (240g) with 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (100g) water in my high-speed blender until it’s very smooth. This is the closest I can get to a wholefood sweetener, and I use it wherever I can in recipes in place of liquid sweeteners. I normally keep some date paste in the fridge ready to use in recipes, but you might have to make a batch before you can make this fudge.
- If you can’t be bothered making date paste, you can just use your preferred liquid sweetener instead, like coconut nectar, agave nectar or maple syrup. The texture of the fudge won’t change too much, but the flavour will change slightly, so just play around with the type and amount until you’re happy with the balance.
- You might find that this nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge is not sweet enough for your taste buds, because I’ve been reducing the amount sugar I consume, so my taste buds are adjusting to this. If you do find that it’s a little bitter, just increase the amount of sweetener until you’re happy with the taste.
- Vanilla bean powder is just fresh vanilla beans air-dried and ground into a powder using a spice blender or coffee grinder. You can make your own or you can buy it from your local health food shop. If you can’t get your hands on any of this, you can just scrape out a fresh vanilla bean or two into the mix, or add 1-2 tsp of vanilla extract.
- I make the nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge into a slice by squishing it into a suitably shaped and sized plastic container. The mix is quite firm, so it presses easily into any shaped container, and just takes on the shape of the container as it freezes. There’s no right or wrong here, just pick one that gives you a good thickness and size, and it will turn out fine. Fortunately, the shape doesn’t affect the taste at all.
- I’ve tried taking this fudge out of the freezer after an hour, but it’s really not frozen properly at this point, so it doesn’t pop out of the mould cleanly or slice up as neatly. Two hours is pretty much the minimum it needs to firm up properly. Once again though, it makes no difference to the taste if you get it out of the freezer a bit early.
- Once the nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge is frozen and chopped, I store it in the fridge. You can store it in the freezer, but eating it straight from the freezer means that it’s a bit harder to chew and the fabulous flavours are not as strong as they could be. Personally I prefer the texture and taste when it’s been stored in the fridge. I have tried storing this chocolate fudge on the bench, but it gets quite soft and can lose its shape, especially if you’ve used coconut oil instead of paste and/or liquid sweetener instead of date paste.
Variations
- You don’t have to make this nut-free raw vegan fudge recipe into a slice. I do that because it’s fast and easy. But you could just as easily roll it into balls and coat them in coconut and then freeze them, and they would be just as delicious and very popular with everyone. I just can’t be bothered with the fiddle.
- You don’t have to use shredded coconut as the inclusion with this nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge. I like using coconut because it’s such a great allergy-friendly food, but you could also try things like activated buckwheat, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds or even finely chopped dried fruit. The fudge base is firm enough to work with whatever inclusion you decide to use.
My inspiration
I originally came up with a quick and easy raw vegan chocolate fudge that used raw almond butter, because I wanted to send my daughter away on camp with something that was less processed than all the other things I knew she’d be eating.
But then I realised that if she was sharing this with her school friends, using almond butter might be a problem if there were kids with allergies.
So I set out to find a version of my already amazing fudge that was nut-free as well. We ate a LOT of fudge during the week before camp, I can tell you!
But fortunately, this amazingly delicious nut-free raw vegan chocolate fudge was the result of our efforts, and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with you.
I love how quick and easy it is to make, that it’s packed with whole ingredients, and that it’s safe to share with everyone.
Must be time for you to go and share it with your friends and family.
Resources
If you’re interested in learning more about the different types of seed butters that are available, here’s a great introduction:
If you want to more about the difference between cocoa and cacao, here’s a really helpful explanation:
If you want to learn more about making and using coconut butter, here’s a couple of handy links:
And have a fudge-filled day ;)
4 comments
Mary garubo
This is not a nut free recipie. Coconuts are nuts!! This can be deadly to some people that think it’s ok to have.
My son is extremely allergic to all nuts and cocconuts are one of them.
Nikki
Hi Mary,
I’m sorry to hear that your son has a strong allergy to nuts.
Fortunately for many people with nut allergies, coconut is not involved, and is considered safe by most nut-free school policies.
If you have any doubts about the people you’re making “nut free” dishes for, then it’s definitely best to check with them first if coconut is OK, because chances are they’ll know exactly what they can and can’t eat.
Petreawalsh
The nicest raw bites ever
They remind me of a macaroon bar when I was a child
So easy to make ??
Nikki
Hi Petrea,
So glad you’re loving them! And yes, they are super quick and easy to make, aren’t they?