Chocolate Fudge
| Preparation time: 15–20 minutes |
This is an easy raw-food recipe–just mix the ingredients and chill in the refrigerator to firm up. The fudge freezes well, so you can make a batch, freeze it, and always have a healthy dessert on hand when you need it! The cinnamon and cardamom add balance to the sweetness of this fudge (to help satisfy without creating cravings!), and these spices also support your digestion and intestinal health.
INGREDIENTS:
1 jar almond butter (16 oz.)
4 Tbsp. raw cacao
3 Tbsp. coconut butter
3 Tbsp. coconut oil
5 Tbsp. honey–if you like it sweeter, you might like to use ½ cup honey until your taste buds get used to a less sweet taste
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. cinnamon powder
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cardamom powder
Other options: 1 Tbsp. maca or 1 tsp. ginger powder
And lots of love!
In a saucepan on low heat, add honey, coconut oil, and coconut butter, and allow to melt. Mix thoroughly and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. This is important because if the ingredients are too warm, the oils can separate.
Add almond butter and mix thoroughly; add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Once you have blended all of this up, taste it and see what you think. You can add more sweetener, vanilla, or salt to get the taste you want. The finished fudge will taste almost exactly like the raw mixture, so making adjustments now for taste will give you a finished product you’ll really like.
Press the fudge into a square or rectangular storage container with a lid, and chill in your refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. If you like, sprinkle the top with shredded coconut and goji berries and cut into squares for a pretty, dressed-up dessert.
Store in your refrigerator or freezer. This fudge will usually last up to 2 weeks in the fridge and several months in the freezer.
Serving suggestions: Cut in small pieces and eat by itself. You can also make the fudge into balls and roll them in shredded coconut for easy serving.
Servings: makes about 20 pieces of halva cut in small squares, like fudge
Traditional halva recipes are often full of sugar and gluten flours. The bars in health-food stores are unfortunately the same.
This recipe makes a rich, delicious, chewy, and slightly crunchy dessert or snack. It needs to be chilled and stored in the refrigerator to get a fudge-like consistency.
Note that you may want to start soaking the sesame seeds and flax meal the night before you want to make this dish (soak for 8–12 hours and see instructions at the beginning of this chapter). Soak the sesame seeds and flax meal in separate containers. After soaking and rinsing the seeds, put them in your oven at the lowest temperature and roast them (about 10–15 minutes). Alternatively, you can dry them in your food dehydrator at 115° for about 2–6 hours.
The recipe itself takes about 15 minutes to prepare once the seeds and meal are soaked and the seeds are roasted.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup organic ghee or raw butter
3 cups organic tahini
1 cup presoaked, roasted organic unhulled sesame seeds
4 cups presoaked flax meal
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ tsp. sea salt
Sweetener options: The recipe tastes the same warm or cold, so add the amount of sweetener that works for you. Choose ½–1 tsp. stevia (or you can customize to taste; if you like the taste, stop adding stevia), ¼ cup raw honey, or 20 Medjool dates.
In a saucepan on low heat, add 1 cup of tahini with the ghee or raw butter, stir in flax meal, and gently heat while stirring constantly, until light brown. Then add the rest of the tahini.
Add sweetener and sesame seeds and mix well. If using dates, either make a date paste by soaking them in hot water for at least 30 minutes, draining and mashing up with a fork, or mash them up in your food processor. Once you’re done making this, taste it to see if it’s to your liking. You can add additional sweetener, sea salt, vanilla, or ghee if you want to shift the flavor to satisfy your taste buds.
Pour into a greased glass container with tall edges or a silicone bread-loaf pan (grease very lightly with raw butter, ghee, or coconut oil). Put in the refrigerator to chill, and cut as soon as it’s solid enough. It will have the consistency of fudge.
The halva is best when kept refrigerated. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, and in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Sunflower Granola Bars (Nut-Free Dessert or Snack)
These raw, no-grain, no-nut granola bars were inspired by Heather’s friend Christina, who needed a nut-free, healthy granola bar for her son to take to school.
These bars are versatile, delicious, and nutritious. They’re not too far off from those made by Lärabar, except that these bars have a more balanced sweetness that make them less triggering of cravings. We find Lärabars to be too sweet, and they’re not always made with organic ingredients. They’re also rather pricey, so our bars can save you money, too!
The ginger in these bars can help with digestion, morning sickness, migraines, arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, cholesterol problems, and heart attack. Keep in mind that these bars are so versatile that you can add other spices instead of ginger or in addition to it. Cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and cloves–some of our favorite powerhouse healthy spices would all work beautifully in this recipe. Get creative and play to your heart’s content.
Note that you may want to start soaking the sunflower seeds and flaxseeds in separate containers the night before you want to make this dish (soak for 8–12 hours and see instructions at the beginning of this chapter).
For this recipe, Heather uses soaked and then dehydrated flaxseeds. You can try just soaking the flaxseeds without dehydrating them, or you can purchase already sprouted (soaked and dehydrated) flaxseeds from your local health-food store. These are great to have on hand for last-minute recipes in case you don’t have time to soak and dehydrate. However, it’s very easy to soak the flaxseeds, then dehydrate them until they’re dry. They will stick together in the soaking water, like a gel (so you can’t drain all the water out–and that’s fine, because the gel keeps everything together!). Put the gel onto a silicone baking sheet in your dehydrator on 115° F for about 5–10 hours, then break it up, and put it in a container for use whenever you need flaxseeds! If you don’t have a food dehydrator, you can put them in your oven on the lowest setting for about 30 minutes or so.
Once the seeds are soaked and dehydrated, it takes 10 minutes to prepare these bars.
2 cups presoaked sunflower seeds
1 cup coconut shreds (Let’s Do Organic brand has a great finely shredded coconut that you can get in health-food stores or online at: iHerb.com or Amazon.com)
1 cup pitted Medjool dates
½ cup presoaked whole flaxseeds
2 tsp. ginger powder
1 tsp. Celtic sea salt
INSTRUCTIONS:
In a food processor with an S-blade, put in the dates and blend until mushy. Now add the rest of the ingredients and blend it up again. Keep blending until the mixture is completely smooth. If your food processor or blender is small, you can mix things up in two batches and then combine in a bowl afterward.
Taste the mixture and see if you like it: You can add more dates if you like a sweeter bar. Or if you want to use additional spices, like cinnamon, start with ½ tsp. and taste, then add more if needed. If you’re adding more dates, start with 2 at a time and taste again until you reach the desired level of sweetness. You may need to add a little water to get them fully blended. Scrape the sides with a rubber spatula to keep things moving.
You can add things like raisins or goji berries if you or your family like chewy fruit pieces in the bars. If you want to do this, you can take out a few dates from the mixture, then remove the batter from the food processor, add the raisins or goji berries, and pulse a few times to get them into smaller chunks; then add to the batter and mix with a wooden spoon.
Scoop out the mixture with a tablespoon and flatten into bar shapes on silicone baking sheets. Put the baking sheets into your food dehydrator at 115° F for about 18 hours, or longer if you like a drier cookie. We like these a little moist and chewy, so we’ll take them out before they get too dry or hard.
If you don’t have a food dehydrator, put the bars on a glass or stainless-steel baking sheet greased with coconut oil, or on a silicone baking sheet over your cookie sheet (the silicone baking sheet does not need to be greased), and put it in your oven at the lowest temperature. Watch the oven for when you want to take them out. It should be anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the lowest temperature of your oven and how dry you want them to be. Keeping your oven on the lowest temperature will be gentler to the nut oils.
Store in your refrigerator for a week or in your freezer for a couple of months. They will thaw quickly if you want to make more and freeze them for convenient snacks. Just pull a few out of the freezer, put into a baggie, and take on the go for a healthy snack or dessert on the run!
Serving suggestions: Serve as granola bars, or roll into balls in coconut shreds and serve immediately or after chilling in your refrigerator for 2 hours or more.
| Preparation time: about 10–15 minutes | Servings: 6–8 |
This recipe makes a delicious key lime pudding that will have you wondering how avocados could taste so good!
INGREDIENTS:
3 ripe avocados
Juice of 4 limes
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 Tbsp. real vanilla extract
½ tsp. sea salt
½ cup natural sweetener–choose one of the following options:
INSTRUCTIONS:
Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and place in your blender or food processor with the S-blade.
Add the rest of the ingredients and blend on high until it is a pudding-like consistency.
Taste–this part is important. Most likely, the recipe will turn out perfectly, but do taste it first to see if you may want to add more sweetener or vanilla, depending on your preference. Everyone is different!
Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour and serve.
Alternatives:
— Garnish with berries, like strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries.
— Serve as pudding; it tastes great on its own.
— This makes a nice alternative to ice cream and junk-food puddings.
Servings: 6–8
This is a wonderful pie that tastes almost like pumpkin pie and can be made with or without the crust.
Note that if you’re including the optional crust, you may want to start soaking the millet the night before you want to make this pie (soak for 8–12 hours and see instructions at the beginning of this chapter). It then takes 45 minutes to an hour to cook the squash (you can make the optional millet crust while the squash is cooking) and 30 minutes to prepare and bake.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE PIE FILLING:
3 cups cooked, mashed kabocha squash (butternut is also an option)
½ cup water
2 Tbsp. kuzu
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cardamom
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. cloves
¼ tsp. nutmeg
Sweetener options: 2–4 Tbsp. raw honey or 10 Medjool dates
INGREDIENTS FOR THE OPTIONAL PIE CRUST:
1 cup soaked millet
2 Tbsp. raw butter, ghee, or coconut oil
2 cups water
2 tsp. raw honey (optional)
2 tsp. cardamom
1 tsp. sea salt
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING THE FILLING:
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
To keep it simple, wash the squash and prick it several times with the tip of a knife to create holes where heat can escape during baking. Place in a baking dish with 2" water in the bottom, and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or when you can insert a knife easily into the squash.
Remove from the oven, allow the squash to cool, and then cut it in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Then scoop out all the cooked squash.
In a saucepan on the lowest heat on your stovetop, dissolve kuzu in water. (Kuzu is a starchy vegetable root that is revered in Japan and is used as a natural thickening agent in cooking, and it can be purchased in your health-food store or online.) To dissolve the lumps completely, keep stirring while the kuzu thickens. Add pureed squash, natural sweetener, and spices.
If you’re not using a crust, put the squash mixture in a greased pie dish and bake for approximately 25 minutes at 350° F (or 300° F if using a glass pie dish).
This recipe tastes great without a crust and can still be made in a pie dish and served like pie. But if you do want a crust, follow the instructions below.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING THE PIE CRUST:
In a saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add millet and turn heat down to medium, cooking until the water absorbs into the millet and the millet becomes more translucent (with no hard yellow spots in the grain).
Turn off the heat and add raw butter, ghee, or coconut oil, and honey. Add spices and sea salt, and mix thoroughly.
Allow to cool, then transfer into a greased pie dish (glass Pyrex pie dishes work really well and are a great nontoxic baking option). Firmly pack the millet into the pie dish so that it is ¼" thick and goes up the sides of the dish a bit.
Cook the millet crust for 10 minutes at 350° F (or 300° F if using a glass pie dish). Then take out and add the squash filling; bake for another 25 minutes. Cool before serving.
Servings: 15–20 small cookies
This is the closest Heather has been able to come to Toll House cookies–and it’s really close! You can eat this as cookie dough, or dehydrate or bake it so that it’s easy to take on the road. We like both options, but we love the cookie-dough version best!
Most other raw chocolate-chip cookie recipes tend to use cashews and oats. Because cashews can have mold, we often avoid them. And for those of you who are avoiding starches for health reasons, we wanted to offer an alternative recipe without the oats. The walnut-and-date combo has a nice hint of the taste from the brown sugar/white sugar combo used in Toll House cookies–but with much better health benefits!
Note that you may want to start soaking walnuts the night before you want to make these cookies (soak for 8–12 hours and see instructions at the beginning of this chapter). The recipe itself takes about 5 minutes to prepare once the nuts are soaked.
INGREDIENTS FOR OR THE COOKIES:
3 cups presoaked walnuts
3 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 Tbsp. ghee (or substitute with coconut oil)
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
⅓ cup dates–taste after blending, and add more if you like it sweeter
1 tsp. sea salt
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COOKIES:
Add walnuts, coconut oil, vanilla, and ghee to blender and begin on low speed. You can also use your food processor with the S-blade. Depending upon your blender or food processor, you may want to add a little water to get things blending smoothly: Start with 2 Tbsp. and add more if needed; you likely won’t need more than ¼ cup. If you have a high-speed blender, like a Vitamix, you may only need 1 Tbsp. or less of water.
Remove to a bowl and allow to chill thoroughly (about 30 minutes). This mixture can get a little stiff in the refrigerator, so you may want to remove for 15–30 minutes before serving, unless you want a stiffer consistency.
If you want to make these into cookies, take a 1 Tbsp. measuring spoon and scoop the dough out onto silicone baking sheets. Flatten into cookie shapes and dehydrate on 115° F for about 8 hours. You want them to still be soft so that you can press the chocolate into them (see below).
If you want to make cookie dough instead, reserve the dough until the chocolate chips are ready.
INGREDIENTS FOR THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS:
½ cup cacao butter
¼ cup raw cacao powder made from freshly ground raw cacao beans (we grind the beans in a Blendtec blender, and it gives the raw cacao a really beautiful flavor–if you don’t have beans on hand, you can use raw cacao powder)
¼ cup Medjool dates (if you don’t have dates on hand, you can use 1 Tbsp. raw honey)
Pinch sea salt (about ¼ tsp.)
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CHOCOLATE CHIPS:
In a saucepan, heat the cacao butter on the lowest temperature on your stovetop.
Put the dates into a food processor with the S-blade or high-speed blender and blend until completely mushy.
Once the cacao butter is melted, add the raw cacao and dates and mix until blended. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Two options–chips or chunks:
— For chunks: Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet. Spread the cooled chocolate out flat onto the parchment paper or silicone baking sheet and refrigerate until solid. Break apart into chunks with a knife.
— For chips: Once the chocolate is warm and semisolid, put it into an icing bag and pipe the icing onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper or a silicone baking sheet. Put them into the refrigerator to harden.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ASSEMBLING THE COOKIES:
Add the chocolate chips or chunks by pressing into the cookies while they’re still soft.
For cookie dough, roll into balls of dough and refrigerate until serving.
For cookies, dehydrate them for 8 hours at 115° F and check to make sure that they’re still somewhat soft. You don’t want them to get too dry, or else you won’t be able to press the chocolate chips into them. They should be easy to pick up and stay intact, but still soft. Remove them from the dehydrator, allow them to cool for 10 minutes, and press the chocolate chips into the top. You’ll likely use about 5–6 chips for each cookie.
If you bake in your oven on the lowest temperature, check after 8–10 minutes to see if the cookies are still soft, while able to stay intact if you remove them from the cookie sheet.
For dough balls or cookies, store in your refrigerator for 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to a few months.
| Preparation time: 15 minutes to prepare, 2–6 hours to chill, and about 22–35 minutes in the ice-cream maker. If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, you can look up instructions online for making ice cream without a maker, or follow our instructions below. This will take about 2–3 more hours in the freezer. | Servings: 6 |
This is a delicious twist on vanilla with some of your favorite Thanksgiving spices, like cinnamon, allspice, and cardamom. Easy to digest, dairy-free, and sure to delight!
INGREDIENTS:
1 (12-oz.) can of organic coconut milk (get a brand that is BPA free, or make your own by following the directions below)
1½ cups extra-virgin olive oil
10 dates
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. cardamom
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. sea salt
INSTRUCTIONS:
To make your own coconut milk, get a bag of organic, unsweetened coconut shreds with no sulfites added. Boil 3 cups of water and allow to cool for 1 minute, then pour over 2 cups of shredded coconut. Let this sit until the water is lukewarm. Put it into a blender and blend for a few minutes. Strain with a very fine mesh strainer or through a nut-milk bag. You now have coconut milk! (Save the shreds to use as coconut flour.) Put your coconut milk into a food processor with the S-blade and add the egg yolks. Blend for a couple of minutes, then slowly drizzle the olive oil into the food processor. Do this very slowly–take 2 full minutes to drizzle the oil in, practicing patience!
Once the olive oil is blended in, add the vanilla, sea salt, dates, and spices and continue to blend. Once this is fully blended, put your mixture into a glass container and chill in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.
After it’s been thoroughly chilled, place the mixture into your ice-cream maker and make the ice cream, according to the manufacturer’s instructions; or follow the instructions for making ice cream without an ice cream maker that you find online. Or try this:
Take a large stainless-steel bowl and fill it halfway with ice. Add in some thick kosher salt or any coarse salt and mix it up. The salt won’t be touching the ice cream–it’s there to transfer cold from the ice into your dish of ice-cream mixture.
Put a smaller stainless-steel or ceramic bowl into the big bowl of ice and salt. Make sure it’s set well into the ice, so that ice is going up the sides of the smaller bowl, but not into the bowl itself. Then fill the smaller bowl halfway up with ice-cream mixture.
Now take a handheld mixer or immersion blender with whisk attachment and mix up the ice-cream mixture for 10 minutes.
Take both bowls and put them in the freezer for 1–2 hours. Take the bowls out and use your hand mixer again for another 10 minutes.
Cover with some natural parchment paper (sitting directly on the mixture), then put a top on the smaller bowl and allow the ice cream to set in your freezer.
Serving suggestions: Serve on its own or with baked apples sprinkled with cinnamon.
Servings: approximately 24 cookies
If you love shortbread, you are going to love these cookies!
Note that you may want to start soaking the nuts and seeds the night before you want to make these cookies (soak for 8–12 hours and see instructions at the beginning of this chapter). Soak the pine nuts, Brazil nuts, and sesame seeds in separate containers.
The recipe itself takes about 5 minutes to prepare once the nuts are soaked and then 24–48 hours in the dehydrator (or 10–20 minutes in the oven), depending upon how crisp you want them.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups presoaked sesame seeds
1½ cups presoaked pine nuts
1 cup presoaked Brazil nuts
½ cup coconut oil
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. Celtic sea salt
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground fennel
⅓ cup natural sweetener–choose one:
Put the sesame seeds in the oven at 200° F until they’re dry (this could take about 30–60 minutes–you could turn the oven up to 350° F to make it go faster). If you want to make raw cookies, put the sesame seeds in your food dehydrator until they’re dry (115° F for about 5–6 hours).
Once the seeds are dry, add all ingredients into your food processor with the S-blade. Blend thoroughly.
With a spoon or 1 Tbsp. measuring spoon, scoop the dough onto silicone baking sheets (they don’t need to be greased). Put in your food dehydrator at 115° F for 24 hours or until your cookies have the consistency you like (less time if you like softer cookies; more time if you like dry, harder cookies that taste like shortbread).
If you don’t have a food dehydrator, put them in your oven on the lowest temperature and check after 10 minutes and again at 20 minutes. Test the firmness with your spatula and remove when they are as firm as you like them. If you like soft cookies, you’ll take them out sooner.
Servings: approximately 24 cookies
Cinnamon, nutmeg, and rosemary make for some very good cookies–plus, they’re packed with health benefits! These cookies have a wonderful taste that is a little like toffee.
Your roundup of healthy herbs and spices include the following:
Cinnamon is anti-inflammatory, helps promote healthy bacteria in your gut (those good guys that help you digest and assimilate your food), and keeps your blood sugar stable (which helps give you willpower!). It can also help with heart health and can prevent diabetes.5
Nutmeg has more benefits that you can count. Some of them are: protecting your skin from wrinkles due to the breakdown of elastin in the skin and skin-damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays, providing anti-anxiety and anti-depression benefits, and inhibiting the viral cause of diarrhea. And some studies have found that nutmeg has aphrodisiac activity and increases libido.6
Rosemary, another wonderful addition to these cookies, has been shown to reduce anxiety, reduce pain in arthritis, and lower blood sugar. Rosemary also helps improve your memory and protect your skin from the sun’s UV radiation.7
Note that you may want to start soaking nuts and seeds the night before you want to make these cookies (soak for 8–12 hours and see instructions at the beginning of this chapter). Soak the nuts and seeds in separate containers. The recipe itself takes about 5 minutes to prepare once the nuts and seeds are soaked and 18 hours in the food dehydrator (or 10–30 minutes in your oven).
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups presoaked Brazil nuts
4 cups presoaked unhulled sesame seeds
4 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp. dried rosemary
2 Tbsp. unrefined virgin coconut oil
7 Medjool dates
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
You can dehydrate the sesame seeds by spreading them out flat on a silicone baking sheet and dehydrating for 4–6 hours at 115° F. If you don’t have a dehydrator, put the sesame seeds into a glass baking dish, making sure that they’re spread out in a thin layer (you may need 2 pans). Put your oven on the lowest temperature and heat until dry and slightly brown. Set them aside until you’re ready to make the cookies.
If your food processor or blender is small, you can cut this recipe in half and mix things up separately, then combine in a bowl afterward.
In a food processor with an S-blade, put in the dates and blend until mushy. Now add the soaked nuts and seeds, and blend again. Add the rest of the ingredients and keep blending until the mixture is completely smooth. Add a little filtered water as needed to keep everything blending up properly. Taste the mixture and see if you like it. You can add more dates if you like a sweeter cookie: Start with 2 at a time and taste again if you decide to add more sweetness. You may need to add a little water to get them fully blended. Scrape the sides with a rubber spatula to keep things moving.
Scoop out the mixture with a tablespoon and flatten it out onto silicone baking sheets. Put the sheets into your food dehydrator at 115° F. We like these a little moist and chewy, so we take then out before they get too dry or hard (about 18 hours). Leave them in longer if you like a drier cookie.
If you don’t have a food dehydrator, put the cookies on a glass or stainless-steel baking sheet greased with coconut oil, or on a silicone baking sheet over your cookie sheet (the silicone baking sheet does not need to be greased), and put it in your oven at the lowest temperature. Watch the oven for when you want to take them out. It should be anywhere from 10–30 minutes, depending on the lowest temperature of your oven and how dry you want them to be. Keeping your oven on the lowest temperature will be gentler to the nut oils.
Store in your refrigerator for 1 week, or in your freezer for a couple of months. They will thaw quickly, so you may want to make more and freeze them for convenient snacks. Just pull a few out of the freezer, put into a baggie, and take on the go for a healthy snack or dessert on the run!