Everyone’s favorite Fudge Babies, one of my most popular recipes of all time, are back once again!
Oil Free
Flourless
Vegan
Just 5 Ingredients… and NO Baking Required!
These secretly vegan and healthy chocolate fudge balls, with just a few wholesome ingredients and no added sugar, are easy to make, completely delicious… and totally addictive!
Don’t say I didn’t warn you!!!!!
Readers also love this Banana Ice Cream
This has been one of my most popular recipes with readers over the years, and for good reason.
If you’ve never heard of Fudge Babies, they’re basically raw and paleo chocolate truffles made without any added sugars, oil, or processed ingredients, and they’re pretty much impossible to stop eating.
The recipe is one of the easiest healthy desserts you’ll ever try.
Fudge Babies will always have a special place in my heart because, long before the Chickpea Cookie Dough Dip or the Black Bean Brownies came onto the scene, this was actually the first one of my recipes to ever go viral!
Fudge Babies come in all sorts of different flavors, such as Thin Mint, German Chocolate, and Chocolate Peanut Butter.
You can roll them into balls, cut out shapes with cookie cutters, or even form them into bars to make your own homemade Larabars, for a healthy snack any time you’re craving chocolate.
You can also roll them in coconut flour if you want to make your own homemade Larabar Bites.
And because they don’t need to be refrigerated, they’re great for any of the following:
Packing in a lunchbox
Making a batch to give as a gift
Shipping to family or friends
Taking as a healthy on-the-go snack
So why highlight the Fudge Babies again now?
Well first of all, the recipe is way too good to be lost in the archives.
If you have just 5 minutes, I highly recommend making a batch.
They are ridiculously fun to make and even more fun to eat.
Especially with Valentine’s Day around the corner, chocolate Fudge Babies are the perfect recipe, because they are both heart healthy and sinfully decadent and chocolatey at the same time.
But even more importantly: On February 21st, at noon EST, I’ll be making these fudge babies live in the studio at the USA Today Headquarters!
**Edit: Above is the live footage from the USA Today Headquarters broadcast
I included a few flavor variations below, but the sky really is the limit.
Have fun coming up with your own Fudge Baby flavors by adding ingredients such as chia seeds, almond extract, shredded coconut, instant coffee, or anything else you think sounds good.
I’d love to see your variations, so please feel free to post a photo of your results in the comment section below, or tag me on Instagram @ChocolateCoveredKatie.
Fudge Babies – The Famous Recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts or nuts of choice – Or here’s a Nut-Free Version
- 1 1/3 cup pitted dates
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3-4 tbsp cocoa or cacao powder
- optional just over 1/8 tsp salt
- optional mini chocolate chips
- optional add-ins such as chia seeds or shredded coconut
Instructions
- *If your dates are super hard, just soak them in boiling water for a half hour. Most regular grocery stores carry dates; just be sure to buy them pitted. I usually add the salt, but it’s your choice! Blend all ingredients in a food processor (or halve the recipe and use a single serve blender or mini chopper). When doing a full recipe, I’ve found that a food processor works much better than a blender because everything processes more evenly and the results are not a sticky mess. Roll into balls – I find it’s easiest to transfer the dough to a ziploc and smush it into one big ball, then break off pieces and roll into smaller balls. Feel free to dip in melted chocolate or roll in cocoa powder or shredded coconut or coconut flour. You can also form bars or even roll out the dough and cut shapes with cookie cutters! View Nutrition Facts Variations: Hot Chocolate Fudge Babies: 1/4 cup raw cashews or walnuts, loosely packed 2/3 cup pitted dates, 1 tbsp Dutch cocoa powder, pinch salt Coconut Cookie Fudge Babies: loosely packed 2/3 cup pitted dates, 1 1/2 tbsp coconut butter, pinch salt Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Babies: 1/4 cup roasted peanuts (with salt), loosely packed 2/3 cup pitted dates, 1 tbsp cocoa, 1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract And here’s a Cookie Dough Version!
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Thank you for all your recipes. Do you have the nutritional data on these. I’m on WW and that would be great.
Sorry, I don’t. I think they’re pretty similar to Larabars, gram-for-gram.
Can you use prunes instead of dates?
Some commenters say they have, but I haven’t tried.
Just made these and they are totally addictive. I really thought they’d be just like a Lara Bar, but they’re so much better!
I just made my first batch of Fudge Babies… we had a healthy recipe contest at work, and I won!! Thank you Katie – these are sooo yummy! My coworkers requested a second batch for tomorrow!
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe – what a revelation! I found your site via someone who had tweaked your original recipe (i didn’t even know what a fudge baby was :-)! ). I much prefer your version, but used almonds this time, as i was out of walnuts. Then i added 10ml of liquid, which really improved the texture for me (i guess my dates weren’t particularly juicy).
Thanks again, Katie – can’t wait to try out your other recipes, your site is a real find!
I adore these things so much, I have been making them by the tub load ever since I found them! Today I got a bit sneaky and put in half a zucchini and (about) a teaspoon of agave. Then blended and blended till it was like chocolate truffle mix, then I rolled the balls in cocoa/coconut/almond slivers. Freaking love! My mum liked them better then the original (until I told her about the zucchini and then she just looked vey unimpressed lol! More for me then.
I know this post is almost 3 years old but I made these tonight and they are FABULOUS! I just have a puny little 3-cup food processor which was *not* good enough for these but I made it work. It just took longer. 🙂 Thank you for posting this!
If you ever want to figure out nutritional data for your recipes, I found this pretty decent free online tool that I use quite often as a sanity check: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Hey, Katie! could I add 1 tsp. raspberry extract to these? Would that be enough?
I have made these, along with having made home made lara bars, and the chocolate & nuts reminds me of the outer coating of a candy bar I used to really enjoy called a Twin Bing. The outside is chocolate with tiny chunks of nuts- and the inside has a chewy (but not sticky) cherry nougat filling. I got to daydreaming about recreating a vegan version of this candy bar & searched for Twin Bing copy-cat recipes online. The recipes I found that seemed like they’d give the right consistency to the nougat used marshmallows & cherry flavored baking morsels(chips) to make a fudge. I thought I’d found my key to success- until I realized all the cherry morsels I look up contain dairy. Seems as though I’d have to come up with something totally from scratch involving imitation cherry flavor? I don’t know if I’m up to the task, but I hear that YOU like a challenge 😉
fudge babies is the cutest name for chocolate ever!