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.
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Vegan Cookie Dough Freezer Fudge
Yield
16 large squares
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Chill time
60
Total time
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.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp coconut oil
- 3/4 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar probably works, but don’t pack it)
- 2 tbsp almond milk
- 1/3 cup mashed banana
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4-1/2 tsp kosher salt, to taste
- 1.5 cups oats, ground into flour (use certified gluten-free oats to make it GF)
- 1 cup raw whole almonds, ground into flour (or use 1.5 cups almond flour)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Directions
- In a medium-sized pot, heat the coconut oil over medium heat. Stir in the milk and sugar and bring to a low boil. Immediately, reduce heat to low and stir for a couple minutes until sugar is dissolved. Stir in the mashed banana. Turn off heat and stir in the salt and vanilla. Set aside.
- In a high speed blender, blend the oats until a flour forms. Add to a large bowl. Repeat process for the almonds, being sure not to over-process them as you don’t want the oils to release. Add to bowl and gently break apart any almond flour clumps with your fingers. Stir in the cinnamon.
- Pour wet mixture over the dry mixture and stir well until no flour remains. Place bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes. Remove and stir in the chocolate chips.
- Line an 8-inch square pan with two pieces of parchment paper (one going each way). Scoop the cookie dough into the pan. Dip a spoon in water and spread it out until smooth. This dough will be very hard to spread, but don’t worry. Place in the freezer for 1 hour and then cut into squares and enjoy straight from the freezer. Store in the freezer in an air-tight container.
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!
omg im making this tonight! do you think it would work with cashews?
Oh my word! Seeing this recipe on OSG made my day! My mouth is watering and I want! I wanted to ask you though, before I made the deliciousness, is there something I can substitute for the banana? I’m not a huge fan of banana, but if there isn’t an acceptable substitute and you don’t think the flavor is too pronounced, I’ll still try it! Thanks so much, Angela! :-)
This looks amazing! I love cookie dough, especially when it’s healthy and vegan! Definitely gonna try this recipe out.
O, these look delicious! I’m definitely going to try these out
Angela, can I just use store bought GF oat flour instead of grinding the oats myself? If yes, how many cups of oat flour should I use? I am going to try to make these for my daughter’s school’s bake sale. Do you think they will hold up outside of the refrigerator for the whole day?
Hey Shilpa, No they definitely wouldn’t hold up outside of the freezer/fridge…they get extremely soft. Sorry about that! As for subbing oat flour, I’d probably use 1.75-2 cups?
Just popped these in the freezer. The only problem I had with this recipe is that I ate 1/2 the batter before it made it to the freezer! Yummy!
Hi Angela, I have a question. I just made this recipe and I am not sure I did it right. I followed your instructions exactly, except that I used brown sugar instead of sucanat (I actually used a bit less than 3/4 cup and didn’t pack it.) My batter came out slightly drier looking than yours, and when I spread it into an 8×8 pan, it didn’t look thick and bar like, like your photo. It is in fact very thin and barely covered the bottom. The only thing I can think that I might have done wrong is that maybe, in an effort to not accidentally make almond butter, I didn’t grind the almond quite fine enough? It was a bit more like coarse corn meal texture than flour.
I absolutely love your blog! I am a long time stalker but first time poster..I have a question about this recipe-would it be ok to sub Earth balance or a different oil for the coconut butter? I’m a college student so coconut butter is a little out of my budget range since I would rarely use it, so I am just wondering if I would totally ruin the recipe with a different fat base. Anyway, I LOVE your recipes and blog!!
Hey Sydney, I think you might be able to get away with subbing the coconut oil with Earth Balance, however I haven’t personally tried it out myself. Let me know if you attempt it!
Hey, so I made these with earth balance and actually without chocolate chips, and they turned out amazing! My friend said “These are the best things you have ever made. Seriously.” And I make some pretty good vegan food, so thanks for the great recipe :)
Another awesome recipe!!! I made this in less than 10 min and had to stop myself from eating it all. Love, love, love it! A big THANK YOU for this one!
Thanks for your feedback!
Do you have any suggestions on what to use in order to replace the ground up almonds for someone who is allergic to nuts?
I would probably just use more oats, and maybe a touch more sweetener, since the almonds provide a nice sweetness.
Any ideas for substituting the banana for those who are can’t eat them?
I keep thinking about this recipe, but I have a question. Do you use regular dark chocolate/dark chocolate chips, or only those that are labled as vegan or dairy-free? Lots of products, such as dark chocolate chips, seem vegan from their ingredients list but then have a little disclaimer saying they could have been processed on equipment that processed milk. What are your thoughts on those labels?
Hands down the most creative recipe I’ve seen all week!
Yummy!
YUM! These looks sooo tasty – and got to love swapping out the Earth Balance stuff for good ol’ fashioned coconut oil. Is there anything better than cookie dough in the freezer?!
omy! just made this. unfortunately, my food processor broke, so the almonds and oats didnt get as ground up as I’d like… but cant wait to eat. in the freezer now!!!!
Oh my word! This recipe is Amazing! (I did substitute peanut butter for the almonds.) However, I’m not sure I would consider it healthy- they are way too addicting! :P thanks for sharing!
Jen
I just made these – they taste great but unfortunately my puny food processor doesn’t grind the oats and almonds fine enough and they’re a tad gritty. They still taste delicious though!
And I LOVE the caramel mixture – I’m already daydreaming about other things that I could use it for! Reduce the sucanat and use it as a pancake topper? Using the caramel as an ice cream topping once it’s cooled a little? Ooooh!
Oh man!! I can’t wait to try this! It sounds and looks delicious!!! <3
This looks divine – my friend made the recipe this past week and thought it was delicious. I’m wondering – do you think you could swap the banana for applesauce?
My husband doesn’t love the banana flavor; but if you don’t think the applesauce would work, oh well….more for me! :)
im really not sure! Let me know if you end up trying it.