I found the original recipe on Things My Belly Likes: Maple Mint Fudge :



The changes I made:

*Used sf pancake syrup instead of maple syrup.
*Used chocolate extract instead of peppermint. I don't like peppermint. It will be fun to try different flavorings, like cherry or orange.
*Used 1/2 CUP walnuts instead of pecans because I've always used walnuts in my fudge.
*Added several drops of EZ-Sweetz to sweeten to my taste. Before I did this it had a VERY dark chocolate/bitter taste to me....but I did taste it before and I recommend doing the same.

I cut this into about 16 or more HUGE chunks of fudge. I've tried several recipes and this is the best so far and dairy free! This is one of those chocolate recipes that will make a great base for a wide range of experimentation....coconut flakes, peanut butter, etc. Can't wait.

Can't wait to try this. Will try with Walden Farms pancake syrup, which I happen to like a lot. Wonder how it would be with WF chocolate syrup.

I hate to rain on the parade but... how is it dairy free when the first ingredient is dairy?

Sounds good though!

Does it really come out with a fudge-like texture? This is very close to the CO candy recipe I use, and it has more of a hershey-bar like texture.

Yes. My apologies. I try to limit all forms of dairy, with the exception of butter, which I seem to do okay with. The only other recipe I've tried that even came close to this was full of cream cheese. Now I feel bad for putting that in the title and getting peeps excited who can't eat dairy in ANY form. So sorry!



Yes. This has a very satisfying creamy texture. The best I've gotten without using a cream cheese or peanut butter base. And the flavor is excellent.

Maybe one could use coconut oil instead?

Well you'll definitely get a candybar texture if you do, rather than fudgey.

Yes. It would be very hard and brittle using coconut oil in place of the butter. I wonder if canned coconut milk might work? It might still have a creamy texture when frozen? I've never tried freezing it but it might be worth a go.

Terri- this sounds so good! Re: butter/CO question- Trader Joe's carries what they call canned coconut cream, which is a much thicker product much more like the texture of butter- I may try that.

Actually, I'm so intrigued about the prospect of the canned coconut milk that even though I still have a bunch of fudge in the freezer I'm going to try the recipe tonight using it. I think I will halve the recipe just in case it doesn't work.

Yeah, I bet the coconut cream would work!

I made this, altering the original recipe by leaving out the maple syrup.

I'm kind of on the fence about it. It tastes like chocolate-flavored butter to me. I think it needs more cocoa powder, I even added a few extra tablespoons and it still isn't very chocolate-y. The texture is too hard to be fudge-like. Even after I left it in the fridge for several hours it was still hard enough to sort of crunch when I bit into it.

I ended up using a mix of almost ever sweetener in my cupboard and it definitely doesn't have that nasty taste chocolate can get with some non-caloric sweeteners.

Next time, I'll try it with coconut cream instead of butter and be ready to use a LOT more cocoa.

hhhmmm....did you use chocolate extract like I did or the peppermint from the original recipe? I really like the flavor of it with the chocolate extract, though it was a bit too overpowering at first. And mine def doesn't crunch. It's pretty creamy. Surely the sf pancake syrup couldn't make that much of a difference in the texture?

Still haven't tried it with the coconut milk yet....let us know how that goes.

I didn't have any chocolate extract so I used peppermint. I do like peppermint and chocolate together.