Coconut Flour & Coconut Blossom Syrup Fudge (vegan)

Last month I mentioned that I have a thing for fudge at the moment.  I have made vegetarian fudge, vegan fudge and even raw fudge.  Well here are some more that I have dubbed as Quadruple Coconut Fudge as its made with coconut flour, coconut blossom syrup, coconut oil and dessicated coconut. 

For a long while, I have been dilly dallying what to do with my stash of coconut flour...  By the way, Is coconut flour the same as coconut milk powder????? I cannot seem to get a definitive answer on this question on any of the website, or maybe I am just not cooking in the right places. Anyway, this recipe for Coconut Flour Fudge is much of an on-going experiment with coconut flour being treated a little like milk powder for Indian style Burfi's. 

This Coconut Flour and coconut Blossom Syrup Fudge is good for up to 3 weeks as long as its kept in the fridge. I preferred this a few days later when the texture changed.  It firmed up even further and became more fudge like. It also crumbled like sugary icing fudge too, but I must warn you this is not sugary sweet, it has a subtle sweetness. 

Sweet Potato Fudge with Cacao Nibs (vegan)

Like the  vegan and vegetarian meatballs, I am having a thing about fudge at the moment.

In recent days, I have made beetroot fudge, chocolate fudge and now these vegan tiger orange coloured Sweet Potato Fudge Bites with Cacao Nibs.  

Parsnip to Beetroot Fudge

A long while back a girl called Harry introduced me to Parsnip Fudge.

The girl in question is Harry Eastwood.  Harry Eastwood is a British celebrity chef and cookbook author of Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache (2009). Harry Eastwood is perhaps the first veggie desserts food writer and vegetable cookbook author in the UK; and I'd even go as far as to say perhaps the first to go beyond carrot and parsnip cake here, pushing the boundaries of hidden vegetables in cakes, desserts and puddings.  Her cakes are super loaded with vegetables with inviting fantastic names like Heartache Chocolate Cake made with whole aubergines.   She  opened up the imagination of chefs, home cooks and food bloggers that now adding vegetables to cakes, desserts and puddings has become a trend.  Some people still see vegetables in cakes and sweet things as unusual when these days its really not.   

Anyway, after all this high praise, I go and adapt her gorgeous Parsnip Fudge recipe and replace it with bleeding crimson Beetroot, I have been thinking about doing it for a long while and found the motivation to do it finally. So what was the motivation, I am married to a man who likes beetroot.  He also has a sweet tooth, very sweet.  He likes his sweet things more than I do - Yes, even chocolate.  I want to make him happy like he makes me happy, so these were made especially for him (but I have also shared some of them too, just don't tell him). 

By the way, You have to like beetroot to enjoy and appreciate these morsels, if not - I wouldn't even make this as it would be wasted on you, really - just go an eat a toffee fudge instead. 

I was so pleased myself especially as making fudge from scratch is still relatively new to me.  I have made vegan ones many times, but not traditional ones with fattening sickly sweet condensed milk, one of the first being Marmite fudge which was adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe Vegemite fudge and now this.  The stirring for this beetroot fudge took a little longer, but the result was Amazing, aesthetically and also in flavour.

I have a renewed sense of respect for people who make fudge from scratch now and will not bemoan at how expensive it is when I see it being sold, I will of course support artisan and independent traders.  

Of course you can adapt this Beetroot Fudge recipe like I have further with carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and even greens...I have also been thinking foraged wild weeds and seaweed, yes Seaweed Fudge and its not that unusual as its already been done by Fiona Bird in her cookbook Seaweed in the Kitchen.

You can find the link to the original Parsnip Vanilla fudge recipe below,  I replaced the parsnip with raw chopped beetroot that I blended with some of the condensed milk. My slightly adapted recipe instructions below  are a little simpler, but you will need a high speed powerful food blender.  If you don't have a high speed powerful blender, then fear not - you can still make this with cooked beetroot. I would recommend cooking the beetroot yourself from scratch in a pot, although you could try it with cooked beets (not pickled), my only concern is it may contain more liquid, so its up to you.   I am sharing these homemade crimson Beetroot fudge pieces with CookBlogShare hosted by Recipes Made Easy and Treat Petite hosted by The Baking Explorer and CakeyBoi.

Chocolate Marmite Caramel Fudge

Let me start by saying this is not a sponsored post.  Last week, I saw Johanna's Vegemite Fudge and found myself drooling over it, suddenly wanting to make it with the our British alternative of Marmite.  I was just going to bookmark it and come back to it, but greed got the better of me, plus I had all the ingredients to hand and I was at home waiting patiently for the Boiler man to service our boiler.  So as soon as he left, I pulled out all the ingredients I needed to make these morsels of temptation in my own home.

I couldn't wait to try them.  As soon as we had our dinner in the evening, I sliced them carefully and popped one in my mouth and wow.  Its unusual for sure - sweet and savoury, but we both loved umami aspect of them.  

We had so much of the Chocolate Marmite Caramel Fudge that there was no way we would be able to finish them off between us.  The following day D took some into his workplace and I took some into mine the following week when I returned back to work after some annual leave.  Loads of people at work were wary of marmite - snugging their noses, nevertheless they were tempted by the combination and tried them.  Even those who disliked Marmite loved them, one even described it as 'beefy chocolate' which made me smile.  I even tempted a colleague who was on a diet to take a piece, she was bowled over by it too.  I also took some over to my brothers house, one of my nieces tried a tiny bite and said yuk, the other had a bite and said yum.  Are you going to finish your piece off ?she asks her sister No she responded,  well I will finish it off for you then, they are too good not to eat!   Need I say more.