Easy Dessert Idea| The one in which we’re in love with home-made date and nut fudge

It is very rare that I come across a recipe on a foodie blog that I absolutely love and want to try out AND I have all the ingredients required to make it ready at home. What I usually do is bookmark my favourite recipes for future use and make a list of the ingredients to buy them the next time I visit the grocery store or supermarket. Unless, of course, I am so haunted by the absolutely drool-worthy pictures these blog owners put up, in which case I rush out immediately to buy the stuff I want and proceed to try out the recipe instantly. 🙂

OK, I digressed. What I was trying to say is that the rare occurrence of coming across a delectable recipe on the internet and actually having the ingredients to try it out happened yesterday. The recipe in question is for ‘Sticky date and nut squares’ or ‘No-bake date and nut fudge‘, which I came across on Bon Appetit. I made it yesterday as a surprise for the OH, and both of us are totally in love with the sticky, nutty, sweet delights. The bonus is that they are super-duper easy to make and hardly take 15 minutes to prepare AND they are healthy too. What more do you want? I can’t thank Priya of Bon Appetit enough for this lovely yet simple recipe.

So, here’s presenting to you the delicious home-made no-bake date-nut fudge:

I used the recipe on Priya’s blog with slight modifications:

Ingredients (makes 15-20 squares):

1. 250 grams of moist dates (I used Lion King)

2. 250 grams of raw almonds

3. 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

4. 3-4 tablespoons fresh fruit juice (I used Del Monte pineapple juice)

Method:

1. Combine in a mixer the moist dates (after carefully de-seeding them – this process needs to be done carefully, otherwise your mixer might go for a toss), raw almonds, cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon of the fresh fruit juice and give it a whir.

2. Open the mixer, add a bit more of the fruit juice and whir the mixture around a little more. The mixture begins to smell heavenly at this point, I kid you not.

3. Repeat step 2 till you get a nice, coarse paste which is not too wet and not too dry.

4. Spoon the mixture into a tin box greased with cocoa powder and level it. Keep it in the refrigerator for about an hour to set it. Now, this is a highly difficult step, I tell you, because all you want to do is grab the box from the refrigerator and lay your hands on the fudge. 🙂

5. After an hour, cut up the fudge into small squares and store them in an airtight box in the refrigerator. Tastes best when cool.

Note: The original recipe calls for almonds as well as cashewnuts. I did not add cashewnuts as I did not have them, and had a bumper stock of almonds. I guess adding 125 grams of almonds and 125 grams of cashewnuts to the above recipe would be ideal. Even without the cashews too, the fudge tasted yummy.

Are you interested in trying this out, too? I know I am going to make this all the time now, especially when we will be having guests over. I have always struggled with making sweets at home for guests, and this seems to be the perfect recipe for me. 🙂