How to make healthy choices every day

Chocolate Fudge and Self Love

Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m not so down with the big V-day (did you notice I flat-out ignored it the last two years here on the blog?) It’s not that I am anti-romance in any way – I love getting flowers. Yea, bring ‘em on! – it’s just that I don’t see the need to have a designated day to share love. It puts pressure on people in relationships to be more awesome than they already are, and it makes single people feel left out. Boo, I say!
Here’s an idea: instead of a fake holiday where we feel obligated to buy junk for people we have a crush on, how about we celebrate ourselves? How rad we are? How beautiful, inspired, giving, and glowing? A justified, well-deserved day of self love and appreciation of our beings, for just being, well, us.

I asked my girlfriend, expert self-lover and culinary genius, Kelly, to come up with a way to say “I love you self” in the form of chocolate. Truth be told, I have tasted her insanely delectable freezer fudge many-a-time, and we both think it’s the best way to give ourselves a little gift (albeit a healthy one!) now and then. Without further ado, I give you Kelly, love, and chocolate…

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Love and Chocolate….*sigh* two things that we should never be without. Even if you are in a relationship with someone else, we should always be striving to bring more self love (and chocolate) into our lives. When you begin the conscious journey to health, you are giving yourself a BIG dose of awesome self love. Taking care of your mind and body temple is for me, an answer to one of life’s great mysteries. What could you do with more love in your life?

Now, what would you do without chocolate? Never mind… don’t answer that question. I put myself in that position one time, and it wasn’t pretty. When you are trying to do better for your beautiful body, you need to be prepared. Running to the store in your slippers to get a fix is no longer an option. You are a healthy diva now! You must plan ahead.

This is my recovery plan. Yes, I used to be a chocoholic. Well, okay…I am still a chocoholic, but my standards are higher now. I won’t allow myself to be used by some cheap, shiny-wrapper-drug-store run-of-the-mill candy now. Oh no my friend. I’ve got my secret stash of chocolate fudge in the freezer just for my self-lovin’ self. And this stash has a big secret! It’s WHOLE AND HEALTHY!
I went there. I said it, this stuff is healthy. Let’s examine this closer so you can get really excited for healthy chocolate!

Sarah was talking about coconut oil in a recent post so I will say no more, but if you haven’t seen it already, you might want to (healthy cheesecake!?!) This is the base of our creamy fudge.

Mmm Mmm Mmmaple Syrup
The other superstar in this mix is maple syrup. I am lucky enough to live in Canada, the land where maple syrup comes out of our kitchen taps (not really), but we do have most of the world’s syrup producing sugar maple trees here. This is the good stuff that helps the tree last through the long winters. The tree will store starch in its roots that is slowly converted into sugar over the season. In the spring, the sugar water rises out of the roots and into the trunk and branches. This is where people come in, tap into the trunk and collect the clear thin liquid to boil down to a beautiful amber syrup.
Calorie for calorie, it is the same as plain white sugar…ouch…but it redeems itself by being amazingly high in manganese and zinc! Manganese is an enzyme activator that helps you maintain normal blood sugar levels and helps your body synthesize fatty acids and cholesterol. And let’s give the bees a break, because it also has 10 times the amount of calcium that honey does. Hug a maple tree!

On to the recipe. I’m going to tell you exactly how I make it and I hope you will be able to replicate the results. It’s not a science, there are just a few things you need to be sure of.
I always use my favorite ceramic bowl, and you must pre-chill it. This is so that when you are mixing the oil and the syrup, the oil does not separate. You will only have separation troubles if you are like me and you use a hand mixer (friction brings the heat that melts the oil). This can be mixed by hand (which Sarah B. does), but it is more difficult to get a uniform texture. I would never complain about lumpy fudge but some people might (Sarah B. has slightly lumpy fudge, doesn’t complain about it).

Self-love Chocolate Fudge
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup of buttery coconut oil (not solid, and not liquid)
1/2 cup raw cashew butter (cashew works best for a neutral flavour, but feel free to use anything! Almond, hazelnut etc.)
1 cup maple syrup (really depends on how sweet you like it, maple can be strong and overpowering at times)
½ – ¾ cup raw cacao powder (If you love dark and bitter chocolate, you can add more)
pinch of good quality sea salt, or more… because salt + chocolate is awesome!
optional: spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, chili, cayenne…

Raw Twist: If you’re eating raw these days, use raw honey or agave in place of the maple syrup.

Directions:
1. Mix your coconut oil and cashew butter in cooled bowl on low setting, being careful not to over mix (the oil will appear soapy if you have over mixed).
2. Pour in maple syrup and mix again, then finally add the cacao powder and salt and mix to perfection.
3. Once it looks good and uniform, spoon into silicone candy or muffins cups (or silicone ice cube trays work too) and throw in the freezer. The coconut oil will harden almost immediately, but it will stay soft and smooth with the addition of the other ingredients. You will never have to defrost it, just peel away the silicone mould and enjoy!

Tip: If you find it difficult to spoon the fudge into the cups evenly, warm it up slightly after you’ve mixed it together by placing the bowl double-boiler style, over a pot of water heating on the stove. Keep a close eye on the fudge and wait just until it’s liquid enough to pour into the moulds.

Once you have tried it this way, experiment a little bit… dipped strawberries, nuts and seeds (flax seeds are a great addition) dried cherries, mint extract…did I mention that this stuff hardens when cooled?? Frozen banana split with hard choco shell! I have yet to find something this is not awesome with, so please experiment with whatever you LOVE!

The best thing about this chocolate is that when you use whole, natural ingredients, your body knows when it has had enough. I can almost promise you, you will not be able to overeat this stuff. You will feel satisfied and happy that you managed to please your inner chocoholic and your healthy diva all in one. Now please do yourself a favour, show yourself some big love and go make this because you are fantastic!
Love + Chocolate, Kelly

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Sarah B. here. This is seriously one of my favorite chocolate recipes because you can just make a batch and keep it squirreled away in the freezer for when you really need a hit. Hey, it happens. And when it does, like Kelly said, you’re prepared. Or when you’re guests come over, you’ll always have a little piece of rich-cool-melty-fudgegasm (yup, said it) to share with them too.
Happy self-lovin’ ya’ll.

xo, Sarah B.

Copyright 2012 My New Roots at mynewroots.blogspot.com


36 thoughts on “Chocolate Fudge and Self Love”

  • Hi! I’ve been following your site for a while now and finally got the courage to go ahead and give you a shout out from Houston Tx! Just wanted to say keep up the excellent work!

  • The difficulty is people on the still left have a tendency to fail to remember that there are actually folks who seriously desire to kill us. n nThey desire to eliminate us because we are alive. That is not a little something that I’m personally inclined to give up to appease them.. And thus there’s the previous “kill them just before they get rid of you…”

  • Hi Sara. I’m obsessed with your website and I can’t wait for your cookbook – whole foods nutritional bible to come out! Can’t wait!!! You are my new food guru. Your photography is extraordinary, your writing is charming and your recipes… I die for them. Can you please tell me what brand and type of coconut oil I can find that doesn’t taste like coconut. Neutral as you called it. I’m a fan of the scent and what it does for my skin/hair/body, but not the taste. Thank you! =)

  • Oh my~
    Just stumbled upon your blog not so long ago and I must say I really love your blog and especially love that whole idea of self love on Valentines day
    After all it’s all I’m left with by being the only one within my group of friends to be single
    Yet afterall I am the one to enjoy it most, funny huh?
    I just needed to ask about the subject of coconut oil, since where I live it is hardly aviable, if there is any substitution for it that would work as neatly?
    Have you tried it with Ghee yet? Just asking because I’m kind of new to all this healthier lifestyle with ghee and coconut oil (whipped myself up so far a glass of ghee and love it)

  • I made this last night for a mini dinner party and not only was it the simplest thing I have ever made, but it was delicious. Everyone loved it! I had to improvise a bit and use a silicone ice cube mold, but that meant everyone was able to have their own cube of fudge. 🙂 It’s true about what Kelly says, you will not be able to overeat this stuff. We all took a few bites and saved the rest. Sooooooooo good. Next time I am going to add all sorts of goodies into it.

    Here’s a photo of the fudge on my instagram for those who are interested… http://instagram.com/p/aRiwnZNgyP/

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  • Is it possible to store the fudge in the fridge or must they be in the freezer? I want to make these for Christmas, and maybe give some of them as presents 🙂

  • Hi!! Your blog is AMAZING!
    I am curious if you think this recipe would work without the chocolate added in? I know that sounds strange, but I don’t tolerate chocolate very well and am curious if it might work as a vanilla-coconut fudge? Is there some other ingredient that could stand in for the cocoa powder? Would love to know your thoughts on this!! This looks amazing and I really would like to give it a try 🙂
    Again, thank you for all the gorgeous+delicious+fabulous inspiration!

  • this is by far the MOST amazing and DELICIOUS chocolate dessert I have ever had (I always was a bit resistant to French mousse-au-chocolat because of the raw eggs inside)!!!

    thanks soooo much for this recipe!!! I got so addicted that I could not stop making it over and over again (after I also read about the great influence of coconut oil on thyroid problems)…I even tried it with carob powder (instead of cacao) and then I even did not need to add sweet things…incredible! MERCI beaucoup for this LIFE-changing good-mood dessert! may the choco-force be with u:-)))…and with the rest of us…

  • Hi again:) I just posted your recipe on my blog. Of course I linked it back to you. I hope you are ok with that, if not pleas let me know:)
    And thank again for the awesome recipe!

  • OMG, I made these today and just had my first one (ehe.. first 6) now, and they are SOO good! Seriously, I almost died!
    And I love your blog, so inspirational!!

  • coconut oil is not a healthy choice because its high in saturated fat … what could be an alternative?

  • just made this yesterday and it was so good but strangely enough it does fill me up – have posted about it at my blog – and I dont’ have any silicone cups so I just made it in a cake tin and cut it once it was set – yummmmm!!!!!! thanks Kelly and Sarah!

  • cute idea of ‘I love you self’, that should be the main stream of the big V-day! I’ve been already addicted to MNR! Thanks for inspiriation. Keep warm

  • @Catherine
    Yeah, the lumps are difficult to get out when you are hand mixing. You could definitely try melting the oil first since you wont be mixing it hard enough to make the oil foam up (unless you have Hulk arms 🙂

  • i was confused about the “buttery coconut oil” and tried softening the oil without melting it completely. when i mixed it all together, i still had little chunks of the oil – but this could be more due to my hand mixing.

    should i just liquify it down next time after all?

    despite its chunks, it’s still so good!

  • Thank you for the love and the fudge.

    I spent today making truffles with a very similar recipe. In my experimenting I fell in love with a new flavour variation: hazelnut extract and orange zest. I was delighted by the discovery.

    Happy day of love to you both.

  • I just made a mini batch of these. SO GOOD. The coconut oil (we’re big fans of) makes it just melt in your mouth, like soft truffles or…I dunno..so lovely. Thank-you for sharing the recipe, this is going to be one of my go to “need a treat” snack options!
    p.s., tried mine with peanut butter, worked fabulously.

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