Date & Tahini Fudge (Raw)

And let’s take a breath.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit crazy – work is crazy busy and overtime has been required, I’ve been so tired by the time I have got home that the thought of doing anything beyond washing myself, shoving some food in my face and falling into bed has been almost impossible, and then let’s throw into the mix a family member having surgery (planned not emergency, thank goodness, but still involving a brain and still anxiety ridden) and well, things have been a bit . . . crazy.

Hopefully normality will start to resume from here on in. I really hope so anyway.

So, apologies for the small break in transmission, but I hope you all understand.

Let’s get back to it with this fudge.

I am working with Indigo Herbs (who are based in Glastonbury) on this one as they kindly sent me one of their free-from organic baking ingredient bundles.

I am not going to tell you everything that is in right now (as it will spoil future surprises) but two of the ingredients are standard fare around these parts – coconut sugar (which has been my sweetener of choice for ages now) and coconut oil. However, only coconut oil is used in this particular recipe.

The other ingredients in the bundle require a little more thought, namely the tahini, because the obvious thing to make would be hummus, but . . . I really wanted to make something sweet and after a little searching on the inter web I found a recipe for date & tahini caramels which I tweaked a little and voila . . .

Fudge! I have called it fudge because to call it anything else would be misleading on the old description front. If you say ‘caramel’ people expect something chewy, whereas this is dense and yielding, just like fudge.

Also it is so easy to make – 4 ingredients blended together.

Although if you visit these parts often you will have heard my lament on the wilfully pathetic power of any kind of blending machine in my house and therefore you will know that saying something as simply as “blend ingredients together’ turns out not to be so simple in reality. However . . .

I actually quite like the chunks of date. So if your mixture isn’t so smooth, don’t panic.

The only downside (possibly) is that it needs to be kept in the freezer. This is a downside if your freezer happens to be kept in the garage rather than the house (like mine) which means access to the fudge is not so easy, but it does mean that you don’t eat the whole batch in one go. Which I could have easily done.

I will be honest here, I tried the pre-chilled/unfrozen mixture and really wasn’t sure. However, patience is required because the chilled/frozen fudge is delicious. And the salt flakes on the top really cut through the sweetness. During the process of taking the photos I ate 5 squares. At least.

Side note – I know the photos are a little bit “meh” and I apologise but they were the best I could manage at the time.

Plus side of being kept in an outside freezer is that every time you pop out there to get, say, frozen peas, you can pop a bit of fudge in your mouth!

If you are looking for something different to do with tahini or if you fancy something that is sweet but not laden in sugar (given which festivity is looming around the not-so-distant corner) then this is for you.