fruits of the season…. and fudge
Summer in Queensland is awesome (sorry to all of you cowering in the cold of the Northern Hemisphere) hot days, balmy (OK, sweaty) nights and all the amazing Summer fruit.
16 punnets of fresh strawberries for $10? Don’t mind if I do. That’s about 5kgs of berries. Awesome. Viper thinks I’m crazy, and my dehydrator has been going for about 3 days straight, not to mention my (tiny) freezer is full to bursting. Not to mention all the fresh-berry-munching.
Good thing Misty has taken a real shine to strawberries – it’s only the beginning of the season. A few trays of mangoes are the next item on the horizon.
I suppose it does seem a little bit of a shame to dehydrate these amazing berries – but I would much rather my jars be full of sweet, dried fruit then my fridge be full of mushy/growing green bits/blackened berries. My dehydrator has been running constantly, as I mentioned, so I decided to dehydrate a bunch of leftover almond-milk-making pulp – I’ve never bothered to do this in the past, but I figured I might as well. Basically, it turns into something similar to almond meal – so you can sub in plain almond meal for the following recipe.
Again – I’m trying to use up ingredients I have in my house, rather than going out and purchasing all sorts of new ingredients. I must admit, blogging and reading food blogs can gets me a little overly-excited about certain ingredients/recipes and I have the tendency to go overboard when shopping. I am cracking down on my weekly food-budget, so making the most of what I have on hand is key for me at the moment.
What’s your favourite way to use strawberries? Does food-blog-reading make you blow your budget on obscure health-food products?
If you’re nut sensitive – grind up some sunflower seeds into a fine meal, and replace the almond with that. You can leave out the macadamias completely, it won’t make a difference.
RAW Chocolate Nut Fudge with Sweet Strawberry Topping
- 1 1/2C almond meal (or dehydrated almond pulp from making almond milk)
- 1/2C vanilla protein powder (unsweetened)
- 2/3C pitted dates
- 1/2C shredded coconut
- 2T ground flax seeds
- 1/2t sea salt
- 3T brown rice syrup
- 3T cacao powder
- 3T coconut butter
- 1t ground coffee (optional)
- 80g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
- 1/3C roughly chopped macadamias (or any nut)
- Pulse all ingredients together in a food processor – if you prefer chunks of chocolate/nuts then leave out the last two ingredients, and fold them into the mix once it forms a soft “dough” – otherwise just whizz everything together.
- Press into a lined loaf pan, and let it chill in the fridge and “set”.
- 1C dehydrated/dried strawberries (or any dried fruit – cranberries/cherries would be great)
- 2T brown rice syrup (or any liquid sweetener)
- 2T coconut butter
- 2T coconut oil
- 1/2t vanilla extract (optional)
- Quickly pulse everything together in a food processor, leaving it reasonably chunky.
- Spread thinly over the set fudge, and return to the fridge.
- Carefully cut into small bars/squares once set.
- Store in the fridge.
23 Responses to “fruits of the season…. and fudge”
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- - December 13, 2012
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Vegan. Stay at home Mum of Misty. Yoga teacher in training. Passionate about REAL food - creating it, eating it, sharing it. I can never stick to a recipe.
Funnily enough, I have pretty much no interest in strawberries, and can easily pass up any strawberry dessert. Switch this to raspberries, though, and I’ll tackle you for them! I so hope I get to experience cheap raspberry season here, because in Canberra they cost $7 a punnet even in season!
P.S. Yay for you eating a little fruit again!!
Yeah I probably prefer raspberries too – but I couldn’t pass up the bargain berries! I am SO stoked to be eating fruit again – AND so icky side effects – SO GOOD…. especially because it’s ridiculously HOT here and all I want to eat is chilled fruit
I’m so jealous it is strawberry season there (or fruit in general). We have entered the stage here in Canada where pretty much the only fruits you can find (that don’t taste like paste/aren’t insanely expensive) are poms, apples and oranges. I’m getting kinda sick of all three :s
I bet! I am so lucky where I live – it’s sub tropical so it doesn’t really get very cold any time – and there is always amazing fruit – but especially in SUMMER
Come visit!
I wish! It’s getting sooo chilly and gloomy here… not a winter fan. at. all.
Neither am I – that’s why I moved from New Zealand too blimmin’ cold
no, we still save. You know us. Buy the good stuff and the rest in bulk! And it’s hot here, so i’m with misty. BERRIES!!!
Yeah, I’m the save – bulk buying is SO good. I think I am just more aware of the AMOUNT of amazing products out there – and I want to try them all
Wow so it’s hot over there? I thought you were meant to be going into Winter? Score!
Yay!! You’re eating fruit
That’s so exciting! And what a great way to eat it- fresh, in season!
These bars sounds delicious- strawberry anything is always good by me!
Yip, I am SO stoked to be eating fruit again – perfect time of the year when all the tropical fruit is amazingly cheap and plentiful (plus it’s so hot, all you want to do is eat cold fruit!)
Sorry to taunt you with a sweet treat
How much longer on your no sugar regime?
Oh, how I relate to the challenges of wanting to buy so many exciting, expensive foods ALL AT ONCE and RIGHT NOW. Blogs don’t help but in truth I’d probably want to buy a lot of things even without the blog reading. Restraint is definitely a necessity
Fresh fruit at those prices definitely needs no restraint though – and given I have a near unlimited capacity for summer fruit (seriously, it is amazing how much I can tuck away) I love the sound of your jumbo berry purchase. Fruit is the most significant reason I can’t fathom a sugar free diet (although I guess if I had difficulties I might have to – I try to rein in my fruit intake occasionally so I don’t get to such a point).
Gorgeous looking fudge too!
I am SO happy to be able to eat fruit again – it’s funny though, when I was on my Anti-Candida regime, I didn’t really miss fruit. I sure am glad to be able to have it again though!
I am totally practising restraint at the moment – it’s SO hard going to the health food store and not buying a ridiculous amount, but the budget rules supreme
Wow, these look fantastic! It is definitely not strawberry season here, but if I did the suggested cranberry version, I think it would make a great holiday treat! : )
I go through phases with buying fancy ingredients. usually I know I’m just too poor to blow that kind of cash, but once in a while I’m like, “THIS IS A WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT!” and my shopping cart will be filled with lucuma, goji berries, spirulina, etc etc.
Yeah, that’s the down side to being a Down Under blogger – we are always blogging in one another’s opposite seasons! Pumpkin vs Strawberries!
Oh don’t get me started on lucuma – it’s my FAVOURITE! But it’s so pricey I usually resist the urge to stock up. Good health is a GREAT investment though, huh?
Yummy. My summer favorite was strawberry and tahini smoothies. Strawberry crumble is always amazing – interested to see your riff. Bushels of dried berries would be so nice. Lucky you!
Oh YUM a strawberry & tahini smoothie sounds incredible – I MUST make one of these
A strawberry crumble is now on the card too! Thanks for the ideas, Allie.
Lou, this looks wonderful! Your are so dang creative!
Oh shucks, thank you, Annie
Omigosh Lou, these look divine! I think you’ve combined all of my favorite ingredients in these….chocolate, dates, macadamia nuts….AND, better yet, I have all of the ingredients already! I think this will have to be my dessert tonight
Hooray! I need to make some MORE…. although I LOVE the look of those little caramel tarts you made – too many yummy things to make, not enough time in the day!!
Can I say that finding your blog, felt I fell into a bowl of gold coins at the end of a rainbow… Have shared to so many your blog and the popcorn balls that since the first make are made every day… with this recipe can I ask what you can subsitute the vanilla protein powder for?
Oh that is SO SWEET, Debbie – what an awesome comment to receive
I would just add an extra 1/3C almond meal instead of the protein powder – enjoy!