I love chocolate fudge and what better for my “Chocolate” theme for the first 5 posts (Out of the 20) of “Vegan Month of Food”. I recently tried this recipe and have made this a couple of times after then for some friends. Super easy, super simple and truly delicious. The best part, you don’t have to bake!

We like the fudge a bit bitter, so I opted to use just ¾ cup of agave nectar. Previously I tried it out with peanut butter and added peanuts as well, but this time with all the PB recall for the fear of Salmonella, I went with almond butter. Truly, you could use any nut butter for the recipe. If you prefer the fudge chewy, decrease the amount of nut better to just a cup, if not you could use the full 1 ½ cups.

I use freshly ground cardamom powder or ground cinnamon for most recipes that call for chocolate. I like the peanut butter-cinnamon combination and almond butter-cardamom combination. For this fudge recipe, since almond butter was my choice of nut butter, I stuck with cardamom.

Also, to make it more nutty, I added finely chopped blanched and roasted almonds and used walnuts for the topping.

I would love to try this recipe with good quality cashew butter. For now, I haven’t found one, so researching recipes for a homemade version. (If you happen to know any, I’d appreciate if you could share.)

Ingredients:

¾ cup organic raw agave nectar
1 ½ cups organic almond butter
½ cup organic cocoa powder
1 cup walnut, chopped
½ cup almonds, blanched, skin off, roasted, chopped into small pieces
1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom (powder)
A pinch of Kosher salt
Olive oil cooking spray

Instructions:

Prepare a 8 inch square pan by spraying with olive oil cooking spray. Set aside.
In a medium sauce pan combine almond butter, agave nectar, salt and cardamom powder. Heat on medium low till it gets hot ( just before you see a bubble). Mix well.
Add in cocoa powder, almonds and mix well quickly before the mixture begins to cool. Quickly pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
Add the chopped walnuts on top and press it gently to make sure the walnuts stick to the top of the fudge. Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes.
Refrigerate until hard and cut into squares.