Guess who’s back, back again, Vanessa’s back, tell a friend, guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back? It’s me bitches. I’m back. Sorry you aren’t bitches. I just like saying that. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m back to blogging! I’m sorry to have left you for so long, but writing and photographing a cookbook was so much more work than I could have ever imagined.
I poured my life and soul into that book. It was forged through blood, sweat, tears, and burns; through rain, shine, summer, fall, winter, and spring; through frustration, joy, solidarity, kitchen floor meltdowns, laughter, awe, chocolate stains, dishpan hands, perfect light, terrible light, trial, error, sleep deprivation, and good old-fashioned hard work. I’m so excited that it lives out in the world now, in different states, and countries, and homes all around the world. It’s a piece of me and I’m so incredibly proud of it.
Are you sick of me posting stuff about it on Instagram and Facebook? I know. I feel you. Honestly I kind of feel like a tool, but you know what? I worked so hard on that book and now I have to promote it. It just is what it is. So hopefully you grab yourself a copy and just sit back and enjoy the ride!
So anyway to say thank you for all of your patience and understanding, I’m sharing a recipe from my book Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind: Over 150 Paleo-Inspired Recipes for Every Craving. This is one of my favorites and it’s SO easy to throw together, Cookie Dough Fudge from page 152. Oh and look I have a fancy new recipe print out thingy. That’s totally the official term. This is to make things easier for you, but mostly for the effin’ B who was talking all kinds of crap about my blog and why on Earth wouldn’t I have an option to print recipes. Well now I do, so suck it lady. She was so mean about it. I’m sorry that printing free recipes from your browser or just copying and pasting to a word.doc is so much trouble. Geeze. So on a lighter note…Fun Fact: If you subscribe to my newsletter (to the right where it says Follow), I’ll automatically send you an instant download of the Top 5 Most Popular Recipes from my blog, all wrapped up into a fun little PDF. I just have all kinds of cool stuff here for you today!
- 8 tablespoons (4 ounces/115 g) salted butter
- 3 cups (465 g) raw cashew pieces
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
- ¼ cup (40 g) coconut flour
- ¼ cup (60 ml) raw honey, melted
- ½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon or ground nutmeg
- 1 cup (3½ ounces/200 g) chocolate chips
- Line a 5 by 9-inch (12.75 by 23-cm), or 1½-quart (1.4-liter), loaf pan with parchment paper; set aside.
- Brown the butter by putting it in a medium-sized heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir intermittently using a rubber spatula. As the butter melts, it will start to bubble and foam. As it continues to cook, it will turn from lemon yellow to amber in color and will go from a loud bubble to a quiet simmer. When the butter is ready, brown specks will have formed at the bottom of the pan, and some of the specks will start to rise in the foam. The butter will also have a pleasant nutty aroma. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for 15 to 20 minutes, until the pan is cool to the touch. When transferring the browned butter from the saucepan, be sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape all the browned bits of the bottom of the pan—that’s where a lot of the flavor is.
- Put the cashews into the bowl of a high-powered food processor and process until the cashews turn to meal. Scrape down the bowl and continue to process for another 5 minutes or so, stopping to scrape down as needed, until the nut oils start to release. With the processor on, slowly drizzle the melted coconut oil into the cashew meal and continue to process until it turns into a thick dough ball or attains a doughlike consistency (it will be much thicker and drier looking than peanut butter).
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the cashew butter, browned butter, and coconut flour and stir together using an electric mixer or whisk. Next add the honey, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon and stir until combined and smooth. Press plastic wrap across the surface of the dough and freeze for 20 minutes. Then fold in chocolate chips. If the chocolate chips are added before, they will melt and sink to the bottom.
- Transfer the dough to the parchment-lined pan and press it down evenly into the bottom. Place back in the freezer for 20 minutes to firm up and set. Cut into 16 pieces before serving. Store any remaining fudge in the freezer; remove from the freezer a few minutes before serving to thaw slightly.
- Subs: Ghee in place of butter. Ghee doesn't brown since it's already clarified butter so I recommend using Tin Star Foods Browned Butter Ghee. For chocolate chips I recommend Guittard which are soy and dairy-free.
Rachael
October 26, 2015 at 1:59 pm (8 years ago)Haha! Love this post and your recipe printy thingy.Thanks for the recipe.
Vanessa Barajas
October 26, 2015 at 3:27 pm (8 years ago)You’re welcome! Haha, glad you like my technical terminology! 😉
Amy
October 26, 2015 at 2:55 pm (8 years ago)True ghee is already a slightly browned (okay, golden) clarified butter… That’s what makes it truly ghee! (I learned this on the Google approximately yesterday.) So the statement “all ghee is clarified butter but not all clarified butter is ghee” is too true. Either way, this looks delicious. Cheers!
Vanessa Barajas
October 26, 2015 at 3:28 pm (8 years ago)Oh good to know! I’m definitely not a ghee expert, but indeed thankful for Google and all it’s vast knowledge! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Mani (A New Life Wandering)
October 26, 2015 at 7:48 pm (8 years ago)These sounds and looks amazing. If only cashews were cheaper.
Vanessa Barajas
October 27, 2015 at 8:36 am (8 years ago)Do you live near a Trader Joe’s? They have the best prices on nuts that I’ve seen, I think it’s like $6 for a big bag of them.
Allison
October 27, 2015 at 11:05 am (8 years ago)This was the first recipe from your cookbook that I made! Amazingness! But now I have to stop myself from making it every weekend… so thanks for that… 😉
P.S. You need to come to Denver. I had to miss Juli Bauer’s cookbook signing because I had the plague (really just a cold, but I didn’t think anyone would appreciate me sharing) and I was bummed when the two of you didn’t have a stop here when you were touring together. So just putting my vote out there…
Vanessa Barajas
October 27, 2015 at 2:26 pm (8 years ago)I know, I totally want to come to Denver! Mainly because I’ve never met Jackson in real life, but that’s besides the point! Haha, who knows maybe I can come visit her next year and we can set something up, you never know! Glad to hear you are enjoying the Cookie Dough Fudge, but not too much. 😉
Amy
October 28, 2015 at 7:14 pm (8 years ago)Made this tonight. It’s great! Thanks for sharing!
Danielle
September 15, 2016 at 10:22 am (7 years ago)Can you sub cashew butter? If so how much?
Vanessa Barajas
October 17, 2016 at 3:56 pm (7 years ago)You could sub cashew butter, it may be a little thinner in texture though. More like a cookie dough butter than perhaps cookie dough. I would say a cup probably. I think the 3 cups of cashews condense down to about a cup.