Looking for a healthy treat for Easter? Wondering what you can serve your children besides typical candy that is loaded with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and artificial food colorings?
Look no further -- I have a fun and easy treat for you.
Naturally-colored Easter Fudge
You may recall my Saint Patrick's Day Fudge, made with the oh-so secret ingredient, parsley. Well today I am going to share with you a way to make other colorful versions of fudge as well to add to your Easter fun.
First, I have to share that I initially was trying to make yellow, purple and pink fudge, but the yellow option just didn't quite "cut the mustard." (And no, I wasn't trying to color it with mustard :-). I used turmeric, and once I got the color almost to where I wanted it, the turmeric flavor was a bit too overpowering and I had to add carob in order to make the fudge palatable.) So, I may take another run at it in the future, but for now I am settling with green, purple and pink.
Recipe Notes
- For Green Fudge: add 1/2 cup dried parsley flakes
- For Purple Fudge: add 3/4 cup blueberries
- For Pink/Red Fudge: add 1 cup finely-chopped beets (beet powder is an easier addition)
- Any healthy sweetener, liquid or granulated, will work instead of xylitol. However, you may need to use a different amount if using a liquid sweetener so see How to Substitute Sweeteners. You may also substitute pure stevia extract or liquid stevia to taste. This recipe is very forgiving so you can substitute any sweetener to your heart's content. With stevia, start with a low amount and work your way up slowly, tasting after each addition (which can be a fun process :-)). I recommend starting with 20 drops of liquid stevia or 4 scoops of stevia (see How to Use Stevia).
- For owners of high-powered blenders like the Vitamix, there is no need to melt the coconut oil before blending. Simply place all ingredients in the blender and process until smooth. You will find that the version made without melting the coconut oil first has a lighter green color and a smoother texture. And if you don't yet own a Vitamix, speaking as someone who fought purchasing one for a number of years, I strongly suggest that you consider this amazing machine.
Naturally-Colored Dairy-Free Easter Fudge (special-diet options)
Ingredients
- 2 cups coconut oil
- 1 cup nut or seed butter
- 1/2 cup xylitol
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Melt coconut oil in small saucepan.
- Add remaining ingredients to blender, add coconut oil and blend until smooth.
- Pour into an 8x8 baking pan (Other sizes can work as well; larger pans will yield a thinner fudge.) and freeze until solid. To make clean up easier, you can even shape the fudge "free form" on a baking sheet into whatever shape and thickness you like.
- Store in refrigerator or freezer to prevent softening.
This fudge is great "as is," cut into squares like typical fudge, but it also lends itself well to holiday fare. If you make the fudge thin enough, you can cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
"Hop on over" to my post on Chocolate / Carob Coconut Nests for a fun way to mold this fudge for another great gluten free Easter treat.
My kids were so happy to have a colorful treat that mom doesn't mind serving to them. This is the way food was meant to be.
What's your favorite healthy Easter treat?
I used Nutiva organic refined coconut oil. Was I chill it first? Thanks for your quick response
That oil should work. The instructions say to chill before cutting. Was that not clear? If not, please let me know.
How do you shape this fudge? It is just one big liquidy mess. Are you to use coconut oil OR coconut butter. I used coconut oil
Hi there. Did you freeze / chill it to make it firm and what kind of coconut oil did you use?
Can I use ghee instead of coconut oil? I find ghee kind of fudgey! 🙂
I don't see why not :). Report back if you can!
I tried using my Vitamix for this an it almost ruined my machine. When it finally incorporated, it started to quickly seperate and turned lumpy. It was such a waste. I followed the recipe to the T and it was NOT purple! It was brown.
Hmmm, Shannon. I am not sure what could have happened. I have never had an issue with this. And I don't see how blueberries could make brown color. Perhaps something was wrong with your ingredients?
YUM! This sounds tasty. I would love to have you link up to Sugar Me Up this (and every) weekend. And if you ever have a cake or cupcake you want featured feel free to submit it too!
Other recipes can be linked up at Feed Your Soul weekends at Around My Family Table.
Wendy
One of the reasons for returning an item to Amazon is "damaged/defective." I wrote that the product claims to be edible, but it made me ill after I ate it. Since the shea butter was from the same company, I no longer had confidence in it's quality. So, they're both in the mail back to Amazon.
I also hope to feel better soon. I'm feeling quite sick to my stomach; the cocoa butter was the only new food I've eaten today and this definitely doesn't feel like a flu bug or any kind of germ caused illness. If feels like I ate something bad. But I'm not throwing up - to look on the bright side!
Not yet regarding a good source. I investigated what I bought through Amazon and I now realize that I have ideological issues with the supply company. So I'm searching for a good source right now.
Well... I had an interesting evening last night making this recipe with cocoa butter. First off, I'm new to becoming kinda crunchy, so I don't always know how things will interact - or not! - together.
Because the cocoa butter is so hard, I decided to melt the coconut oil and cocoa butter together in the microwave. That part worked fine. Then I added organic turbinado raw cane sugar. It wouldn't dissolve. I finally put it all in my blender and mixed and mixed and mixed only to watch the sugar sink to the bottom of the blender each time. My conclusion is that sugar can't be held in suspension by oil. Do you know if that's true?
So then I added frozen blueberries to make it purple, hoping that the addition of cold would cause the coconut oil and cocoa butter to somewhat solidify and be able to physically hold the sugar throughout the mixture. When it didn't solidify, I decided to pour the mix (yes, I had added the vanilla and salt) into an 8x8 dish. I left it covered on the counter overnight and went to sleep.
This morning, the mix was solid, but mixable. The very top was a thin layer of coconut oil. I didn't bother to study the layers too much; I'm sure the sugar was on the bottom. I was able to stir the mix in a "cream butter into sugar" sort of consistency. Quite the good upper body workout! I waited until the kids were at school so they wouldn't be asking, "What's that, Mom?"
So, I got it mostly stirred up. I could still see a few small chunks of coconut oil, but decided it was good enough. It's in the fridge to firm up some more. It is yummy! And a very nice shade of purple. Once it's firm, I plan to cut it, leave it in the pan, leave it out and see whether or not it stays firm at room temperature. I'll let you know!
What I might try next time is to melt the cocoa butter and then mix it into slightly softened coconut oil along with the other ingredients. I'll let you know how it goes! Maybe I'll even try it with cocoa to see if I can make a somewhat traditional dairy-free fudge. Thanks for this recipe!
Oh my, Ellen. What a story! When I responded to your question about cocoa butter I was thinking you'd be subbing it for the coconut oil--not the seed butter :-). Sorry about that! I do think you might get better results melting the oil and butter on low temp on the stove. I've had issues w/ melting coconut oil and having the whole recipe mess up. But cocoa butter is a lot firmer than nut butter so that's likely what happened.
I think it's great it tasted good! Did you see my Bean Fudge Recipe? You'll love it! Great minds think alike ;-).
Well, I just took it out of the fridge and ate a piece. It's an interesting concoction I've made. Not sure what I will call it. It tastes good, but is different than anything I've ever eaten. Actually, it's rather like white chocolate. Perhaps I'll call it "White Chocolate and Blueberry Fudge". My kids recently had white chocolate hot cocoa and liked it. It's kind of crumbly just out of the fridge; I'll comment again about its texture once it gets to room temperature. And to think that men, and some women, have been surprised when women make good scientists... 😉
:-). Please keep me in the loop! My son LOVES blueberries so I'll be excited to try it! Do you have a good source for bulk cocoa butter?
I just found this:
https://www.amazon.com/100-Organic-Cacao-Butter-16oz/dp/B002US55K0/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
It looks promising. Also Mountain Rose Herbs sells cocoa butter.
Well... I'm now feeling queasy after eating my creation. I'm returning the cocoa butter and the shea butter I also purchase from the same company to Amazon. However, I still think cocoa butter and coconut oil creations are worth pursuing. I'm glad I thought to return these items and get my money back.
You're able to return it just b/c of feeling queasy? Please tell how you pulled that off! Hope you feel better - what do you think was the problem?
Would cocoa butter work in this recipe? I bought some food grade cocoa butter for putting into creams and lotions (experiments which I've just begun playing with). Seems like it would be perfect for fudge...?
I think it would for sure work but will be better for room temp (it won't get soft) and it will taste more "chocolatey". Let me know :-).
Your pastel fudge is lovely! We don't do food dyes so it is nice to have a healthy alternative.
I did see those, that was what brought me over here.
We have to follow a low oxalate diet here (well 2 of us do) so we can't do high oxalate foods even once in a while or my 4 year old and I will be in significant pain. (we do miss beets but it just isn't worth it).
Hmmm....well, how about blueberries for the red (it'll be reddish purple) or this link perhaps for a greenish dye. I am not "up" on oxalates so forgive me if I'm recommending something you can't have--how about spirulina since you would only need a very small amount? Or chlorella?
Have you tried anything else for the green or red? Those are both high oxalate foods. I'm just wondering if I can learn from your mistakes what not to try myself.
Patty..I haven't yet, but did you see the naturally colored eggs post on my post today? I don't know that I would worry about high oxalate once in awhile, but the maybe you know more than I do. We eat parsley fairly regularly, but not so with beets.
Love this. I made some fudge before christmas and wanted it to be red. I juiced a beet and added that, but just chopping one up sounds good too! Thanks for the idea!
You're welcome! These natural colors are a ton of fun, aren't they?
What a lovely healthy fudge! Great recipe! Thank you for linking it up with Feed Me Tweet Me Follow Me Home. Hope to see you again this week - the linky is up now!
Yum! I love the idea of this - especially since it's refined sugar and chocolate free! Can you taste the parsley or beets when you use them as dyes?
We didn't taste the parsley at all, and my son says that the beets added a nice sweetness to the fudge. Let me know how it works for you!
I had the privilege of sampling this fudge yesterday and I can vouch for the fact that it is DELISH! Really, really good. Thanks for letting me sample it Adrienne 🙂
Always happy to share a new culinary experiment! So glad that you liked it!