This delicious Healthy Russian Fudge is melt in your mouth good. Made with five simple ingredients and no blenders required; if you loved fudge as a kid but haven’t indulged for a while, here’s your chance to rekindle that romance!
The star ingredient of our fudge is tahini, a lovely creamy paste made from sesame seeds. Tahini is often used in Middle Eastern and North African cuisines, and you may well have tried it before in the form of that delicious creamy sauce they drizzle over your kebab at 1am. I’ve spoken about the benefits of sesame seeds before here, but as a quick recap, they’re packed with nine times the calcium of dairy, five times the iron of red meat, and almost the same amount of protein as fish or chicken. Now that’s some serious nutritional punch for such an unassuming little seed!
This delicious Healthy Russian Fudge recipe then takes that tahini, adds a dash of sweetness, some vanilla, a helping of sea salt, and voila, fudgy childhood goodness is yours. Think…
- Melt in your mouth good
- Done in 5 minutes
- No fancy equipment needed
- Packed with calcium, iron, protein, vitamin E and healthy fats, and
- Reminiscent of your favourite fudge of yesteryear, without the sugar bomb
If you’ve got a spare five minutes this weekend, grab yourself a bowl and try these little morsels out. Sprinkle over your favourite toppings, brew yourself a cup of tea, and you’ve got a delicious afternoon tea treat, without the fuss.
Tahini – hulled vs unhulled
The key thing with this recipe is to make sure you use hulled tahini. That means tahini made with sesame seeds that have had their outer hull removed, which can often be quite bitter. In a more complex recipe, you can often interchange hulled tahini for unhulled (or whole), with not too much effect. However when there are so few ingredients such as in this fudge, we really want that star tahini flavour to shine through tasting as sweet and creamy as possible.
If you don’t like the subtle bitterness of tahini (or just don’t have it on hand), you can also make these with almond or cashew butter, with a slightly different but still delicious result. Or try softening the tahini flavour with half and half tahini and almond butter (my favourite blend).
If you make these lovely little Healthy Russian Fudge bites, I’d love to hear how you get on. Leave me a comment below, take a pic and tag me over on Instagram (use @begoodorganics and #beoodorganics in the main caption so I don’t miss you), or share your photo over on my Facebook page here.
Hope you love them – til next week, stay happy and well.
PS If you like this recipe, I’d love you to pin it on Pinterest, share it on Facebook, post your recreation on Instagram (tag me @begoodorganics and #begoodorganics), or share it with your family and friends. Also, if you’re not already subscribed to my weekly recipe emails, be sure to do that here, and don’t miss my next recipe video by signing up to my YouTube here.
And, if you’re interested in one-on-one advice, I have a small number of Naturopathic and Nutrition consultations available each week, either in person or via Skype – you can find more information on those here.
Love my recipes and emails on plant-based nutrition? Leave me a review here!
Please note – if you are wanting to meet any of the specific dietary requirements below, please read my recipe notes.
Ingredients
- 1/2 c hulled tahini softened
- 3 tbsp coconut oil melted (+ optional 1 tbsp cacao butter, melted)
- 3 tbsp brown rice syrup
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Toppings (optional)
- Freeze dried berries
- Goji berries
- Sesame seeds
- Edible flowers
- Flaked sea salt
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl until combined. If your tahini is particularly hard (ie has been in the fridge), you may want to soften/warm it slightly before starting so it will mix well and become super smooth.
- Pour your blend into ice cube trays, and place in the freezer for around an hour or until set.
- Remove from the moulds, sprinkle with toppings if desired, and devour immediately (before they melt!). Or store in the freezer in a sealed container for up to two months (although I promise you, these won’t last more than two days…).
Recipe Notes
- I love using coconut oil here for a silky smooth melt-in-the-mouth texture, but for a firmer result you could use an equal measure of cacao butter instead. Alternatively simply add 1 tablespoon of cacao butter along with your coconut oil to help it set firmer (I’ve included this in the instructions above). If you use the coconut oil only option, note that these treats do start to melt fairly quickly, so are best enjoyed straight from the freezer (on a plate, of course…).
- Alternatively, you can also use coconut butter instead of coconut oil for a super creamy fudge that will be a little firmer than the coco oil version, and a little softer than the cacao butter one – you can either buy that on our online store here, or make it yourself with this recipe here if you’ve got a hardy blender!
- I made this particular batch with whole tahini (made with unhulled sesame seeds) as was out of the hulled stuff, but it definitely does have a more bitter taste. If you’re not used to tahini, I definitely recommend making these with hulled tahini first, or for an even sweeter/less bitter result, use a half/half blend of hulled tahini and almond butter.
- I’ve only made these very modestly sweet (as wanted to give some to Mila too), but if you prefer a sweeter more traditional fudge, feel free to increase the sweetener to 4-5 tablespoons. I’ve used brown rice syrup which is lovely, but any liquid sweetener will work well – coconut nectar, yacon syrup, maple syrup – all will just impart slightly different flavours (brown rice syrup and coconut nectar are the most neutral).
- You can also try making these with medjoul dates instead of liquid sweetener, which has a fabulous result in terms of taste (sweet caramelly goodness!). You’ll just need a strong blender (I love this one here) to do so, and it will work better if you make a double quantity batch so you have enough mixture in your blender to get it super smooth. Simply swap out the 3 tbsp of brown rice syrup for 1/2c medjoul dates (~5 dates), so in a double batch, that means you’ll be using 1c of medjouls (instead of 6 tbsp of syrup). Try out both versions (syrup vs dates), see what you like best. I love using dates and whole fruits as sweeteners wherever I can, but it does mean you need equipment to blend them up. Pre-squeezed syrups/nectars are easy in that you can just whisk everything in a simple bowl. Take your pick (and let me know in the comments below what you try!).
- To make these keto, use your favourite keto sweetener – ethyritrol should work well here.
- I’ve also made my fudge quite salty, so again if you prefer not too much salt, feel free to reduce to 1/8 tsp. Although sea salt is very good for you (full of minerals, we’re not talking about the bleached iodised stuff), and if you’re eating a largely plant-based whole foods diet, you’ll probably need the extra!
- I’ve made quite a small batch here, with just 8 fudgey bites from these quantities (also because my ice cube tray only has 12 spots). However, if you like you can easily double the recipe to make twice as many (they store so excellently in the freezer, why wouldn’t you!).
- These fudges are naturally nut free if you use tahini, but of course won’t be if you use the almond butter option. They’ll also be raw if you use a raw tahini or nut butter, although note that most pre-purchased butters are lightly roasted to bring out the flavours of the nuts or seeds (and also it makes it easier to make them into butter). Either way, both options taste fabulous.
Did You Make This?
Tag @begoodorganics
I can’t wait to see your creations!
