Easy Vegan Reese's Style Fudge Recipe, Paleo Option

Last night I was trying to think of a delicious dessert to make for my family. The thing is- my house wasn't so clean, so I didn't want to make more dishes, I didn't have so much energy, but I still wanted a relatively healthy dessert, dairy free, gluten free, egg free, and ideally grain free.
What to do, what to do...

A few days ago when I was in the city, I discovered a new scratch and dent store with very cheap all natural peanut butter (100% peanuts, no added salt, sugar, or oils) and relatively healthy vegan chocolate chips, so I was thinking of combining the two to make some peanut butter chocolate fudge, but all the recipes that I saw out there were with coconut oil, and a) I am getting a little tired of coconut oil based desserts- I make them all the time b) I didn't want to take out measuring cups or anything to measure the coconut oil.

However, I had the idea that just chocolate chips should be enough to solidify the dessert, and the peanut butter would keep it softer than just solid chocolate. I figured the two combined probably would make a fudgey texture, without the need for butter or coconut oil. I figured- worst comes to worst, I'd have something with a funky texture that tasted great (you can't go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate).

And so, I made this delicious dessert, no measuring cups or spoons. The only things that got dirty were my rubber spatula, a teaspoon, a soup spoon, and the inner pot for my makeshift double boiler. (I put a smaller pot inside a larger pot filled with an inch of water. The outer pot just got wet, not dirty, and just the inner pot needed washing.)

Super easy- tastes delicious, and relatively healthy too! The kids all were a fan, and the texture was spot on and fudge-like!

If you can't eat peanut butter, whether because of allergies or being on the Paleo diet, feel free to replace this with any pure nut butter or sunflower seed butter, either store bought or homemade.

Mine aren't Paleo or refined sugar free since I used chocolate chips that contained white sugar, but they aren't so bad either (ingredients are only cocoa solids, cocoa butter, white sugar, and vanilla)- to keep this totally Paleo, use Enjoy Life brand chocolate chips and a nut or seed butter other than peanut butter. If you have homemade chocolate, you can use this in place of the chocolate chips.

Easy Vegan Reese's Style Fudge Recipe, Paleo Option

Ingredients:
1 lb or 2 cups pure peanut butter (no added ingredients) or other nut or seed butter
1/2 lb- 1 1/3 cups chocolate chips
1-2 heaping tablespoons liquid sweetener (optional)- I used jaggery syrup, maple syrup or honey also work
1/4 teaspoon salt
Coconut flakes for garnish- optional
Coarse salt for garnish- optional

Instructions:
1. If your peanut butter comes in 1 pound containers and chocolate chips come in 1/2 pound packages, you're in luck because then you don't need measuring cups- just empty them both into your double boiler, aka small pot inside a larger pot containing about an inch of boiling water. If not, then this will make more dishes- measure out 2 cups of peanut/nut butter and 1 1/3 cups chocolate chips.

2. Melt the two together, and mix them as well as you can. If there are any clumps that don't mix in well, no worries- it just won't be uniform and you'll have chunks of more peanut buttery or chocolatey goodness. Perfectionism is totally unnecessary here, and the lack of uniformity even adds to the charm.

3. Taste the mixture- is it sweet enough? If it is, no need to add anything. If it isn't sweet enough, add a tablespoon, maximum 2, of your liquid sweetener to the mixture, and mix it well.

4. Mix in 1/4 teaspoon salt if your peanut/nut/seed butter is unsalted. If yours is salted, no need to add any more.

5. Pour the mixture into a 9x13 pan lined with parchment paper. (See- no dishes getting dirty here- all the "mess" goes on the parchment paper and the pan stays clean.)

6. If desired, top with coconut flakes or shredded coconut or coarse salt. I did half of mine with coarse salt, half with coconut flakes.

7. Put in the refrigerator to harden. Depending on the temperature in your house, you can even leave this out. It becomes a more firm fudgey texture in the fridge, and becomes a softer fudge if on the counter in a cool-ish kitchen. I wouldn't keep this in the freezer, because then it may become too hard, and more brittle, less fudgey texture.

8. Slice into pieces, and serve.

Enjoy!

What is your favorite fast and easy dessert to make? Are you a fan of peanut butter and chocolate together? Does this look like a recipe you'd try?