Birthdays and Fudge Babies

FTC Disclosure: This post may include links which allow me to earn a small commission on the item(s) purchased. This has no effect on your price. GAPS Diet Journey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

WARNING: If you are on the Introduction part of GAPS, you may want to come back here one day when you can have sweets.

Spoiler Space

.

.

.

.

One day I will finally get over my desire to have a special sweet treat on my birthday, but this wasn't the year. Maybe that shall be my goal for next year or maybe next year I'll do better with sweets, or maybe I will make less so that I'm not tempted to eat too many.

I have been wanting to make these Fudge Babies, the ingredients for the Original Fudge Babies are GAPS legal; some of the variations contain items that are not allowed on GAPS. I first heard about Fudge Babies at Elana's Pantry, where she linked to the mother of all Fudge Babies, Chocolate Covered Katie.

But I know better than to make a dessert that will serve more than one, since I will end up eating the entire batch myself, so I plotted and planned to bring the Fudge Babies to work with me on my birthday to share with my coworkers.

The Fudge Baby recipes only make a few babies each, maybe 5 to 6, but there were so many I wanted to try, and of course I had to come up with two variations of my own. And I wanted to have enough for everyone at work to try. Everyone brave enough to eat something “weird” that is. What is so weird about the foods I eat, I want to know? It really boggles my mind that I'm the weirdo because I eat “real” food. Whatever.

So let's get started: Here is a photo of the babies in their fine and glorious birthday suits. I will link to the recipes I tried.

  • Chocolate Covered Katie's Original Fudge Babies (Walnuts [affiliate link], dates and advanced GAPS food cocoa powder [affiliate link])
  • Chocolate Covered Katie's Tiramisu Babies (This recipe has instant coffee [affiliate link], which is not GAPS legal)
  • Chocolate Covered Katie's Peanut Butter Babies (I altered this recipe slightly in that I did not use cocoa powder and used more peanuts which were coarsely chopped)
  • Chocolate Covered Katie's Cookie Dough Babies (These call for chocolate chips which are not GAPS legal unless you can find some that do not contain sugar)

I came up with two variations of my own. The first is Banana Bread Babies. I created these in honor of one of my coworkers, who doesn't like chocolate very much, but loves bananas. Here is a photo of the Banana Bread Babies:

Banana Bread Babies

  • 110 grams dates
  • 40 grams crushed banana chips (home dehydrated)
  • 45 grams walnuts

Recipe makes 5 babies. The home dehydrated banana chips are very hard, so you definitely need to let these babies sit overnight so that some of the moisture from the dates can be absorbed into the bananas to soften them a bit. They turned out pretty chewy, but I thought they most definitely tasted like banana bread.

And last but not least, the Pacific Island Babies:

I definitely ate too many of these fudge babies, so they are not on the “allowed” list for me for quite some time. Or, I will cut down the recipe to make only one fudge baby. That might work when I feel like I want a treat.

I did step on the scale on the first of June to find that I weigh 180.8. I stepped on the scale on the 21st of May so I would submit an accurate weight for my adrenal test, and weighed 176. Today I weigh 176.8. So, my weight is fluctuating by about five pounds, as is, I believe normal. I can't imagine anyone's weight stays exactly the same from one day to the next, or even from morning to night.

Now back to the babies… I think the next time I make them, I will definitely play around with the recipe, and I plan to use less dates. They were super sweet to me, and I think I could easily halve the amount of dates and still be thrilled with the end result. The dates serve two purposes that I can see, to sweeten the treat, and to hold the ingredients together. Both of my baby creations were crumbly in the food processor, but the dates allowed them to be smooshed into balls easily.

And now a commentary on the babies:

  • Original Fudge Babies – These were amazingly delicious and GAPS legal as long as you can tolerate this much sweetness. I made the babies on Tuesday, and on Thursday on the way home from work I finished off the last of the babies. Amongst the babies was one of the Original Fudge Babies. The babies had all been warmed slightly because it was hot in the car as I was driving home, and I realized as I ate one of these that I could have been eating a brownie for all I knew. It makes me happy to find things that replace favorites from my past. I was not ever a huge chocolate eater, but I did like brownies. When I make these again, I will half the dates and include coarsely chopped nuts of some kind, either walnuts or pecans [affiliate link], since I always preferred brownies with big hunks of nuts.
  • Tiramisu Babies – These babies contain a small amount of instant coffee. I decided to make them because my son likes Tiramisu and I thought he might like them. He wasn't impressed. I did end up eating a couple of them, and thought they tasted very much like Tiramisu.
  • Peanut Butter Babies – I wanted to make some fudge babies that were not chocolate, as there are some not-chocolate-lovers at my job, my boss being one who rarely indulges in chocolate. She loved the Peanut Butter [affiliate link] Babies. I modified the recipe slightly by including extra nuts which were coarsely ground, and did not the optional cocoa powder.
  • Cookie Dough Babies – Another of the babies I had on the way home, slightly warmed. These also contained illegal ingredients, the chocolate chips because they contained sugar. I know there is a brand of chocolate chips that is more pure, or I could have used a bar of chocolate with no sugar, but I didn't want to fuss much, and I wasn't too concerned about having the small amounts of sugar. I do have to say these babies tasted exactly like Snickers bars. If you can find a GAPS legal chocolate chip or way to get in some chunks of chocolate, they are definitely one to try.
  • Banana Bread Babies – I made the Banana Bread Babies specifically because one of my coworkers does not care for chocolate, but she loves bananas. These tasted very much like banana bread to me.
  • Pacific Island Babies – I wanted to make a tropical version of the babies, and this was my end result. Very tasty, and not as sweet as the others.

It is difficult to pick a favorite, as they were all delicious. Everyone at work who tried them thought they were fabulous. I would like to try some of the other versions, but I will wait for another special occasion. Like Christmas!

In case you're wondering what happened to me and intro… I guess I went to full GAPS. I have already said this, but I should make a post to follow up and up my  second round of intro. I will try to do that soon.

If you love desserts like this, I have two cookbooks you really need to check out ASAP! Naturally Sweetened Treats for gluten-free dessert needs and Baker’s Dozen Volume 4, Chocolate Treats for amazing chocolate desserts and snacks.

GAPS DIET JOURNEY is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON.COM. GAPS DIET JOURNEY is an affiliate for several companies and may be compensated through advertising and marketing channels. Therefore, this post may contain affiliate links.

5 thoughts on “Birthdays and Fudge Babies

  1. Starlene, we made the original Fudge Babies for my birthday a week ago–YUM! Good thing I have a family of 11 to share them with or that might have been dangerous! 🙂

    Thank you so much for sharing this–it made my birthday a “treat”–and all GAPS legal!

    HUGS!

    ~Trisch

  2. @Trisch, awesome! I’m glad you all liked them. I thought they were a fabulous, fabulous, dare I say HEALTHY treat! At least they are all GAPS legal ingredients! 🙂 Happy Belated Birthday!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *