Lucky for you, patience is not my strong suit.
I made this recipe a while ago with grand plans to save it for the cookbook, but I really couldn’t keep it to myself any longer. Especially on Valentine’s Day. That would just be cruel.
It all began when I saw an incredible looking cookie dough fudge on Pinterest. I immediately knew that I had to try making some, with my own vegan spin on it.
However, I didn’t want to use confectioner’s sugar, butter, sweetened condensed milk, cream, white flour, corn syrup, or cups of sugar, so I decided to use my gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe as the base and tweak it from there. I knew with a bit of work, I could turn it into a more natural “fudge” recipe while maintaining the authentic cookie dough taste. After a quick search for vegan fudge online, I also came across Sarah, Katie, and Kate’s vegan fudge recipes and used those for a bit of inspiration, adding coconut oil and a banana to the recipe as well.
Here’s what I changed to my cookie recipe:
- I swapped the sugars for unrefined Sucanat sweetener
- I swapped soy-free Earth Balance for coconut oil and reduced it from 8 tbsp to just 3 tbsp
- I omitted the flax egg (not needed) and the baking soda (ditto)
- I increased the oats from 1 cup to 1.5 cups
- I added 1/3 cup mashed banana
- Added a couple tablespoons of almond milk
The first thing I did was heat the coconut oil, Sucanat, milk, and mashed banana on the stove top. I did this to melt the Sucanat so the fudge wouldn’t be grainy. Most of the cookie dough fudge recipes I came across called for icing sugar, but I figured I could cook down the Sucanat without having to resort to the processed white stuff. It worked beautifully!
A healthier caramel-like syrup was born!
I let this wet mixture stand on the stovetop, to cool slightly, while I prepared the dry ingredients.
For the dry ingredients:
1. Take 1.5 cups of oats and process it in the blender until a fine flour forms. Remove and scoop into a large bowl.
2. Now, add 1 cup of raw whole almonds into the processor and process just until a fine flour forms. It’s ok if a few pieces of almond remain. Be careful not to over process the almonds or it will start turning into almond butter and the flour will heat and clump together. If this happens, just use your fingers to push the clumps out. Or you can just use 1.5 cups store-bought almond flour.
Mix in a touch of cinnamon into the flours and now pour in the wet mixture on top and stir well until the clumps of flour aren’t visible anymore.
Heaven in a bowl!
The cookie dough batter will be gooey and warm (since the wet ingredients were heated on the stove top), which presented a bit of a problem for my first trial. When I stirred in the chocolate chips, all of them melted right into the batter. This may or may not be an issue for you, but I wanted the chips solid for texture/appearance purposes. For my second trial, I chilled the batter in the freezer for 30 minutes before stirring in the chocolate chips. Much better. I wanted them solid for a nice texture, however, some of them still did melt a bit. It ended up being mostly chocolate chips with some chocolate swirl…perfect!
Now all you do is spread this dough into an 8-inch square pan lined with two pieces of parchment paper. The dough will be very stiff and annoying to spread, so dip a spoon into water several times to help spread it out. You’ll eventually be able to spread it out smooth. Place it uncovered in the freezer for an hour and then it’s ready to rock your taste buds!
Very important tip: It needs to be kept chilled to stay firm, but trust me, neither of us seemed to mind.
Attention all cookie dough lovers! This fudge tastes just like cookie dough, but better. The sweet almond and oat base gives this dough a rich and buttery flavour, while doing without all the refined ingredients. I call this freezer fudge because it needs to be kept in the freezer to stay firm. Slice it up into squares, store in an air-tight container, and you have cookie dough “fudge” whenever the craving strikes. To make gluten-free, just swap the oats for certified gluten-free oats. Inspired by Pinterest along with Sarah, Katie, and Kate’s vegan fudge recipes.
Vegan Cookie Dough Freezer Fudge
Yield
16 large squaresPrep time
Cook time
0 minutesChill time
60Total time
Ingredients
Directions
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Serving it with some vegan ice cream is also highly encouraged!
With any luck, I can save the other versions for the book. :)
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Oh girl, there are just no words!! I’m in loooove…which is kind of appropriate today!
Thanks for not keeping this one to yourself. :-)
thnx
Oh wow, this looks so delicious!!! I am glad you couldn’t wait to share with us! Making this asap!
OMG yum yum yum! I for one am thrilled you’re low on patience this morning!
Wow Ange, I’m always amazed by how you manage to switch up recipes to make them not only healthy but vegan too! This sounds delicious. Like you, I don’t think I’d mind if it was a bit soft. I probably wouldn’t have the patience to let the dough chill anyway! Happy Valentine’s Day!
If I hadn’t made chocolate coconut brownies yesterday and still have 6 of them on my counter, I would be making this in a heartbeat today! Delicious!
I think your first photo just made my Valentine’s Day.
Ok, perhaps that’s a little over-dramatic, but then again maybe not… after all, it’s cookie dough!
And then the last photo… you’d better publish that cookbook soon, or I might have to resort to eating the computer screen. Somehow, I don’t think this would do justice to your recipe ;).
Hi Angela! Those brownies look amazing. Any chance you want to make me a batch because I am running a high fever and those look like they could cure me! ;)
Oh Girl. Ohhhh girl. That looks… amazing? Divine? Like a stand in love for valentines day?? Unfortunately being at school I lack access to some of those wonderful ingredients as well as appliances, but I can dream. And earnestly wait for when I get home to whip them up!!
On the topic of being at school, I saw on your old posts (pre-Vegan days) that you have a list of healthy snacks to keep around. Any veganized ideas? I find that most snack food (since it’s designed to last awhile) is either chock full of sodium, sugar, or both with little real nutritional value.
Any tips would be appreciated. Happy Valentine’s Day to you as well!!
Hey Michaela, My go-to snacks are pretty basic- lots and lots of hummus (im obsessed) with crackers, brown rice cakes, & veggies, granola bars (this recipe is easy/no bake: http://ohsheglows.com/2011/11/25/last-minute-protein-energy-bars-creamy-holly-nog-smoothie/ ) oatmeal squares (easy but you need an oven: http://ohsheglows.com/2012/01/20/on-the-glow-basic-oatmeal-squares/ ) fruit, endurance crackers & nut butter, green monsters, 5 ingredient almond butter chews (also no bake), etc. Hope that gives you some ideas!
Can not wait to try!!! I’m a newfound vegan and you have made singlehandedly made this new transition quite easy to maintain. Thank you! Will definitely be making these for me and my Valentine tonight! Thanks for sharing!
Interesting. Sounds good with some ice cream. :)
I’ve never been so excited to see a recipe where I know I’ll always have all the ingredients on hand! I’m making these tonight!
Yum!! I don’t know how we are going to wait for the book!!
I love desserts and treats straight from the freezer! Something about the crunchy cold texture is so appealing to me…. almost as appealing as a treat straight from the oven!
Wow this sounds delicious! I love cookie dough and love having it on hand in the freezer so I’m pinning it for sure so I remember to make it.
what a perfect v-day treat! this looks delightful!
YUM this looks fabulous & I have everything I need to make it, happy valentines day to me :)
this looks amazingly delicious… especially for valentine’s day!
I’m pretty sure I have all of the ingredients to make this…could be dangerous, especially since I just made vegan chocolate truffles!
This is such a cool recipe! I can’t wait to try it out… pinning! :)
This looks healthy and delicious. I love how you served it over the icecream. Nice treat for valentines day :D