I made some of Julia Ferre's "Carob Nut Fudge" yesterday. This has got to be one of the BEST candy recipes I have ever tried! When my husband took a bite of the fudge, he said "This can't be good for you!" But it is — by far — the most delicious and nutritious pleasure food I've ever tasted.
The ingredients include raisins instead of sugar, peanut butter and coconut oil instead of butter, and carob powder instead of chocolate. The recipe also includes walnuts, coconut, and rolled oats, as well as vanilla and sea salt. It goes without saying that I used all organic, and unrefined products whenever possible. (I found Sun-Maid's California Organic Raisins in my grocery store, but not on the web.)
In terms of yin and yang, this recipe is so much more balanced than your typical fudge, which contains butter, milk, and loads of extremely yin sugar!
Here is Julia Ferre's delicious recipe for:
Carob Nut Fudge
325ºF oven
15-20 minutes
9x9-inch baking dish (I used an 8x8-inch glass dish)
Step 1: Simmer in a small saucepan for 5 minutes and allow to cool:
1 cup raisins
1 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt (unrefined)
Step 2: Using a blender (or food processor), grind into a coarse meal:
1 cup walnuts.
Step 3: Remove the ground walnuts from the blender, sprinkle half of them evenly over the bottom of the baking dish, and set aside the remaining half.
Step 4: Blend the cooled raisin mixture in the same blender and set aside.
Step 5: In a large skillet or frying pan, saute for 3 minutes:
2 tablespoons coconut oil and
1 cup of rolled oats
and then add to the pan, and saute for another 2 minutes:
1/3 cup coconut (shredded, unsweetened)
plus the remaining half of ground walnuts.
Turn off the heat and set aside.
Step 6: In a large 2-quart sauce pan (this will be the final mixing bowl), melt
2 more tablespoons of coconut oil
and turn off the heat. Then immediately add and stir:
1/4 cup carob powder
Step 7: Add the following, one at a time, to the sauce pan and stir each time:
2 tablespoons water
1/2 of the raisin mixture, and then the other
1/2 of the raisin mixture
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter (creamy or chunky)
and all of the oats/coconut/walnut mixture
Step 8: Only if necessary, add 1-2 tablespoons of more water — but the mixture should be thick. I guess it depends on how much you cook down the raisins in the first step, but I didn't need to add any more water to mine.
Step 9: Spoon carefully into the baking dish, on top of the walnuts. (The ground walnuts help keep the fudge from sticking to the bottom.)
Step 10: Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. I baked mine for 15 minutes and then tested the center with a toothpick, which came out too wet, so I put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes.
Step 11: Allow to completely cool before slicing into small one-inch squares, and then serve!
Julia says in her recipe that the fudge should last until the New Year. I guess she means as long as you don't eat it!
You can find Julia Ferre's recipe in her article on "Seasonal Energy: Winter" in the November/December 2011 issue of the magazine "Macrobiotics Today."
NOTE: Next time, I'll try adapting the recipe for my friends who are either allergic to nuts or require even less amounts of sugar from the fruit. For example, instead of 1 cup of Sun-Maid's California Organic Raisins, which contains 116 grams of fruit sugars, I could use 1 cup of Trader Joe's Unsweetened Unsulfured Dark Sweet Cherries, which contains only 48 grams of fruit sugars.
Dates and prunes also have less fruit sugars per cup (75 grams and 42 grams, respectively). Instead of peanut butter and walnuts, I could use regular cow's milk butter, more coconut oil, and more coconut for the bottom of the pan. I could also try substituting the carob with melted baking chocolate (unsweetened), which contains more fat.
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