Silky Smooth Bean Fudge
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Yes, you read it right. “Bean Fudge.” This Black Bean Fudge is so super rich and flavorful that no one will expect that it’s made from beans. Get ready to be amazed.
Yes, it’s true. This healthy fudge is a HUGE hit with everyone who tries it! It’s a dairy-free fudge that even doubles as a healthy frosting and is loaded with nourishing ingredients. You can eat this fudge anytime–guilt-free.
Fudge is one of those comfort foods that make you “not too comfortable” after you’ve eaten it. And fudge isn’t good for you anyway right?– evaporated milk and tons of sugar. But then, you knew that.
Well, you can now change your thinking about fudge, because I have a healthy fudge recipe for you that you can feel good about eating and serving to your kids. Plus, it’s a dairy-free fudge.
I’ve been known to offer it to my kids for breakfast and snacks without batting an eye — and while having a piece or two myself :-).
Anyway, this healthy fudge recipe is so good that there is no reason to be “secretive” about what the main ingredient is. Beans! Even some non-real-foodie folks have even asked for the recipe!
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Why This Bean Fudge Is Great
- It contains lots of coconut oil
- It is easily adaptable to special diets (sugar free, nut free). Actually, all of my recipes are.
- It is a simple sweet treat for your family. No need to bake, easy preparation, and the pan is simple to clean. Just combine all of the ingredients, smoosh them into a pan and presto! You have a wonderful, healthy fudge treat for your family. You could even make it simpler by just free-forming the fudge on a plate and letting it firm up just like that in the fridge.
- Besides being adaptable to special diets, it is also easy to change ingredients around to make different varieties.Even changing the beans around makes a difference. The above photo is black bean fudge, but we’ve also made Adzuki Bean Fudge and Pinto Bean Fudge. Really any kind of bean should work!
One final reason this healthy fudge is great….it makes a great edible face paint :)! (They couldn’t resist!)
Most recently, I revised this recipe and found that doubling the cocoa / carob tastes much closer to the real thing.
Carob has an inherent sweetness so you will probably need more sweetener if you use cocoa. And if you choose to double the cocoa, don’t eat it too close to bedtime :-).
Whatever adjustments you make. you will be getting lots of coconut oil goodness into your family while giving them a treat!
Special Thanks to Affairs of Living for the inspiration for this recipe.
More Healthy Treats
– Sugar-free Peppermint Fudge (keto & vegan)
– Almond Joy Bars
– Almond Butter Cups
– Homemade Chocolate / Carob Chips
– Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
– Homemade “Jello”
– “Phat Fudge” Copycat
Recipe Notes and Substitutions
- Cocoa and Carob: Feel free to adjust the amount of carob or cocoa that you use to your taste. Using the full amount gives a really rich taste, while half of it provides a nice mellow flavor. If you really want to “go for the gusto,” double it. You can use organic carob powder instead of cocoa if you like.
- Beans: I typically use organic black beans for this, but technically you could use any bean you like. I have friends who have used organic pintos, and organic kidneys would work as well. Really, there isn’t any reason any type of bean that would not work. Please try to de-gas your beans.
- Coconut Oil Information: Use coconut oil w/o either coconut flavor or taste – i.e. expeller pressed – to avoid excessive coconut flavor.
- Sweetener Options: You can substitute any granulated or liquid sweetener for the “low carb sweetener” mentioned in the recipe card. This recipe is very forgiving. You can really use whatever sweetener you like–liquid ones might make the resulting fudge a little soft, however.
If using stevia, 3/16 stevia is the equivalent of 3/4 cup sugar, so you can substitute for that as well if you’d like. See How to Use Stevia or this post on Substituting Sweeteners for more ideas. - Trim Healthy Mama: If you are on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, this is a crossover.
- Make sure to De-Gas Your Beans– this will make everyone who eats this yummy fudge happier ;).
- Handy Measuring Spoon Tips: If using stevia, stevia extract is 32 times as strong as sugar, so getting something like these stainless steel mini measuring spoons is super helpful. The 2nd smallest is 1/32 of a teaspoon so you can easily measure stevia extract powder (or monk powder).
These are the spoons I love and recommend for measuring stevia extract powder and other tads and dashes of things:
Silky Smooth Bean Fudge
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups cooked black beans (the equivalent of 2 cans. See Recipe Notes for alternatives)
- 3/4 cup coconut oil
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup low carb sweetener (or to taste–see Recipe Notes for alternatives)
- 3/16 teaspoons stevia extract (see Recipe Notes for alternative)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in high-powered blender (like a Vitamix) or food processor and process until totally smooth. Adjust sweetener to taste at this point.
- Spread the mixture in an 8×8 pan, pressing down firmly.
- Place in refrigerator(if you do not eat it all :-)), for at least one hour or until firm. Slice into squares and serve.
- Store in the refrigerator or in the freezer for longer storage or for a frozen fudgey treat. It will defrost nicely on the counter or in the refrigerator. Do not use the microwave (you’re backing off using that anyway, aren’t you?) or you will have fudge sauce. Well, then, maybe you want fudge sauce :-).
Notes
- Cocoa and Carob: Feel free to adjust the amount of carob or cocoa that you use to your taste. Using the full amount gives a really rich taste, while half of it provides a nice mellow flavor. If you really want to “go for the gusto,” double it. You can use organic carob powder instead of cocoa if you like.
- Beans: I typically use organic black beans for this, but technically you could use any bean you like. I have friends who have used organic pintos, and organic kidneys would work as well. Really, there isn’t any reason any type of bean that would not work. Please try to de-gas your beans.
- Coconut Oil Information: Use coconut oil w/o either coconut flavor or taste – i.e. expeller pressed – to avoid excessive coconut flavor.
- Sweetener Options: You can substitute any granulated or liquid sweetener for the “low carb sweetener” mentioned in the recipe card. This recipe is very forgiving. You can really use whatever sweetener you like–liquid ones might make the resulting fudge a little soft, however.
If using stevia, 3/16 stevia is the equivalent of 3/4 cup sugar, so you can substitute for that as well if you’d like. See How to Use Stevia or this post on Substituting Sweeteners for more ideas. - Trim Healthy Mama: If you are on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, this is a crossover.
- Make sure to De-Gas Your Beans– this will make everyone who eats this yummy fudge happier ;).
- Handy Measuring Spoon Tips: If using stevia, stevia extract is 32 times as strong as sugar, so getting something like these stainless steel mini measuring spoons is super helpful. The 2nd smallest is 1/32 of a teaspoon so you can easily measure stevia extract powder (or monk powder).
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
Would you…Could You…Eat. Bean. Fudge?
Of course you will :)!
This was really excellent. We’re newly wheat free, so I happy to find this. And they freeze well. I think I will cut down on the cocoa for the next batch, but that’s just personal taste. I would recommend, however, that they be eaten at room temperature. We though they were okay coming out of the fridge, and then we let one sit on the countertop. Wow!! Fantastic recipe. Can’t wait to try some your other recipes.
Thanks!!! So glad to have you and glad you enjoyed it!!! We need to make more ourselves. 🙂
I have family members allergic to coconut. I hope to try this with butter or possibly ghee. That is, I hope the consistency works. Thank you for posting this recipe. I’ve been trying to find a sugar free fudge that is edible and haven’t had any luck so far, unless one likes peanut butter fudge, but I want chocolate fudge.
It should work for sure – I’d love to hear what you think!!!
I am so curious to try this. I have been interested in trying black bean brownies, but have not yet gotten around to it. I think I’m going to pick up some xylosweet today since I already have black beans soaking for dinner. Thanks for the recipe – I’m excited to give it a try 🙂
Great, thanks! I will try that and let you know how I make out, thanks for the quick reply 🙂
Hi Adrienne! I love your recipes and I really enjoy your reading your blog 🙂 My son and I LOVE this fudge. I have had a request to make a similar peanut butter fudge or chocolate peanut butter fudge, and was wondering if you thought I could add peanut/almond/sunflower butter to this recipe with success? I saw a similar bean fudge recipe over at Cooking Traditional Foods, but it calls for 1 1/2 cups of coconut oil, which seems like a lot considering it only has 1 1/2 cups beans as well. Any advice? Thanks for you help!
Hi Caitlin. Thanks!! I have tried nut butter based fudge but I am not sure if it’s perfected. I do think that I tried Cooking T F’s one and we didn’t like it but I am not sure. I have an Easter Fudge on my site. That one is pretty heavy on the coconut oil as well but I do think that when I tried it w/ almond butter it was delicious so I would start with that. I will have to try another recipe and see what happens. I know I tried one more once and it was way too sweet…..let me know what you think about the Easter Fudge w/o the color added :-)!
Thanks for clearing that up … I totally mis-read that, my apologies! Great recipe … Do you have a fb page? I tried to “like” you on here and I just went to a bunch of ads!
No problem! Where did you click through to try to “like” me? The FB link at the top right appears to be working and so does the one in my sidebar. Thanks in advance for your help! You do need to tell FB that you want my updates as they are only feeding updates to about 16% of likers right now. I hope to do a post on that soon!!!
Above you said all of your recipes are nut free. Is almind extract not really from almonds? Plus there are walnuts in this recipe.
Hi Camie. I said that all of my recipes are easily adaptable to special diets. You don’t need to use the nuts – you could use nothing or seeds. There aren’t any nuts in this recipe but you could add them. Almond extract is from almonds but you could get an almond flavor that doesn’t. I used to buy Spicery Shoppe brand. Thanks!!
HI! This looks SO yummy! Can you explain why you think coconut oil is good for us, though? given its high content of saturated fat, and my general aversion to extracted oils, I am hesitant to use it, but if you can give me good evidence to the contrary I’m willing to hear it! thanks!
Hi Annie. I too come from the frame of mind that coconut and palm oils are not healthy. I was living the “healthy fat free life” for quite awhile, eating high sugar, high carbs and thinking I was doing a good thing for myself. Then I ended up w/ hypogylcemia and was on a fast track to a bad place health wise. There is a lot of information on the internet and in books about these oils being good for you. I try to watch how much I eat–not because I am concerned about the health issues, but because my metabolism is a little slow right now and I just can’t handle that much fat. But I do so prefer to eat something like this than a fat free, high glycemic “goodie”. I am not sure what you mean by a “extracted oils” – could you explain? One of the sources you may wish to look at is Know Your Fats by Mary Enig. She is considered to be the modern day natural foodie expert on fats. This is an issue I should post on.
Here is some more info:
Mayo is at least neutral on it.
Kimi at The Nourishing Gourmet is very balanced. Here’s her take on coconut oil.
Hope that helps. Let me know what you think.
could you use sprouted beans????????
Yes, in fact it’s better for you. :-).
My daughter, she’s 3y.o., has developed an liking to chocolates. Oh she eats on regular meals- except breakfast. she’d rather have milk so I’m constantly looking for stuff she’d eat at the beginning of the day. this is so awesome. Thanks!
I had the exact amount of black beans for half this recipe! I used glycerin and NuNaturals liquid stevia, chocolate flavor (20 drops). I also added some flax/chia meal for fiber. Tasted it and it tastes great. Now putting it in the fridge to see how it firms up. Can’t wait!
Love the idea of putting the chocolate drops in it and the flax/chia as well. We’ve tried several different varieties and we just love it!
Have you tried their root beer flavor? I add it to my root beer kefir after the fermentation (as there’s no sweetness after it ferments) and it tastes great (at least from my kids – I don’t like root beer). I think I might try adding a little more cocoa (like you found) next time. I like it, but my husband was so-so.
I have. My kids used to drink it in plain water :-). The cocoa thing is hard. My family likes it w/ less. I like it w/ more. But I’ve always been a chocolate / carob girl. I need to watch it. Take care!
Where do you buy the adzuki beans?
I purchase mine from Country Life Natural Foods. Depending on where you live they might be a good resource for you.
***I use xylitol and erythritol. They are not great whole food options, but I can’t tolerate much stevia at this point so I have to use what I can.)
What do you mean? I recently bought erythritol, but I haven’t tried it yet. Is the taste strange or why you wouldn’t recommend it?
Hi Jessy – It’s just that a lot of “whole foodie” types say that since it’s created by man that it shouldn’t be eaten. There are varying levels of commitment to whole foods and in the stricter circles, they really think that sugar alcohols should not be eaten. Unfortunately, I can’t tolerate sweeteners that elevate my blood sugar so I am pretty limited (very limited) in my options. Among the sugar alcohols, I think that xylitol and erythritol are the better options. Hope that helps. I really like the taste – it’s just 3/4 the sweetness of sugar, and more expensive :-(.
Thanks for the recipe! I got it off Amy Green’s sight. My son is gluten and refined sugar free. I just made them, as the recipe states, except I used regular coconut oil. I love the coconut flavour! The grainyness from the beans and flavour from the oil makes my brain think there is flaked coconut in it. Unfortunately I do weight watchers and made the mistake of calculating the points in it (90 for the whole pan!) I still had one piece as I know it is so good for me to have some healthy fats, plus, who can resist it… so yummy! Thanks!
You’re welcome? I am so glad you liked it! We love it and it’s such a balance – good fats, calories, etc. I’m there with you!
I did not have time to read all the comments and am new to this site. I have a condition called IC bladder that has to do with food. Stevia is one of the sweetners that aggravate it. I am also diabetic so I have been using splenda.
WHERE DO YOU GET (Vegetable glycerine)?
I can of course use honey, but honey has its own flavor according to type.
Hello there and welcome! I am sorry about your condition. Does pure stevia aggravate it? You can find it here or at Iherb. You can get $5 off your first order there w/ my referral code of RUR466. If that doesn’t work for you I can get you one additional recommendation.
Looks great 🙂
I hope you like it, Claire!
I love that you can make such delicious recipes out of the least likely ingredients. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Paula! Well, I will say that I am not the greatest at creating my own recipes from scratch, but I am usually good at finding the good ones and/or making good ones better and healthier. Thanks for your kind words!
The only tweaks I made were I used Olive Oil instead of Coconut Oil (since I actually prefer spoon fudge), added 1/4 cup of flaked coconut, used Raw Honey as the sweetener, added ¾ of a bar of Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened chocolate (read recently dark chocolate was supposed to have some health benefits, so I tried it), and 2 tsp of cinnamon (I love cinnamon). I enjoy this desert more each time I eat it (at least once per day)!
Nice additions! I will say that chocolate is one of my favorite foods, but I find that it isn’t that friendly to my adrenals so I need to watch how much I eat. Thanks for sharing!
This recipe is awesome! Thanks so much for posting it, Adrienne! I tweaked it a little bit just for personal preference, but having this during the holidays was/is an awesome (and relatively nutritious) treat!
Wonderful! My kids ask for this all the time. What tweaks did you make?
I’m trying to make your fudge, but it isn’t turning out. I used all sugar for my sweetener and also used olive oil. I’ve never used coconut oil, I assumed it would be a similar consistency. It just isn’t hardening… any suggestions? Maybe I just need to let it chill longer.
Also, do I need to de-gas beans if I’m using canned?
Kristin, I don’t think it will harden near as well w/ olive oil. In fact, I just read an article that said that olive oil that will not harden in the fridge is not good quality. But right now I can’t remember where I read that.
You can’t de-gas canned beans, or at least I don’t think so. You can rinse them, but that will be the extent of it. Does the “fudge” still taste good? Maybe it can be Silky Smooth Chocolate Fudge :-).
The top layer finally got a little stiff when left overnight. It turned out more like a pudding instead of fudge, but we like the taste so I think I’ll buy coconut oil and try again. I’m surprised it doesn’t taste too much like beans!
Glad it worked out (sort of). Make sure to get expeller pressed, like this one from Tropical Traditions so that you don’t get too much coconut taste (unless you don’t mind that) :-).