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!
More Reader Favorite Recipes:
gold star for katie today!
mmmmmmmmmm
easy and pretty healthy really
recipe is printed and i will get this job done
thanks missy!
WHY DO I NOT HAVE DATES IN MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW?! bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I’m seriously considering heading to the grocery store just for the sake of making these. You’re killing me, smalls!
These look amazing! I made raw fudge along similar lines recently and it was too good!
I’d add fresh-grated ginger or finely-chopped crystallized ginger to these delicious babies!
OMG
I can’t wait to try these.
Do you think I can use almonds or cashews? I’m not a fan of walnuts…
OMG these are delicious and my 6 year old loves them. I just made these twice this week. Once with walnut and once with almonds. I prefer the almonds. I mixed everything in my vitamix and then rolled into balls.
Katie! Thank you so much for this recipe! These are so good! I’m glad I took the risk and made them. I bought a Cuisinart just for this. When my girlfriend asked me what I was doing in the kitchen I replied, “I’m just makin’ Babies!”
Though walnut is my favorite furniture making wood I much prefer almonds with my chocolate. Here in southern California it seems we have 2 types of dates: Medjool and Deglet Noor. I recently came upon a very good price on the DN dates at our local warehouse grocery which put them at half the price of the Medjool. However the DNs are too dry to use by themselves. My solution is to use half Medjool and half DN. If the Medjools are especially sticky I can use a smaller ratio of Medjool. All other amounts in the recipe remain the same. Other tips: you will need to run the processor for a bit- until the mix starts to ball up. Also, roll between your palms while the mix is still warm.
These are so awesome!
Hey Katie,
I’ve never commented before but I’ve been lurking your site for awhile now and decided to finally comment when I saw these amazing looking chocolate recipe 😀 When I get all these ingrediants i will defintelytry this! Would another nut besides walnuts work you think?
These look so good! I love how cocoa makes everything more chocolatlely and delicious with almost zero added fat/calories. YUM! I will def have to try this recipe. Way to go again Miss Katie. 🙂
so cute and clever! 🙂
Have I told you how much I love you? Because this pretty much confirms that you are the best friend EVER! HOLY YUM!
OMG! You are seriously.. I love you! Not just because of the awesome food you make lol but also the way you write and just.. these ideas that come out of you! Like the ideas of what to do with them. BASKETBALL NET! ohhh yeah. I think I will do the eating contest.. my friends had one with mashed potatoes not too long ago. But I think they will love this!
XO