Frozen Fudge Bars (Dairy Free)

Yesterday was the summer solstice and I am ready for some steady sunny days! I decided to whip up a batch of frozen fudge bars for what I hoped would be a nice warm weekend. This recipe is a knockoff of Popsicle®'s brand of Fudgsicles® that I used to enjoy when I was a child. Take a look at the ingredients/nutrition facts of Fudgsicles® that are supposedly "no sugar added".

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There are at least 25 ingredients on here, and I don't even know what most of them are. I don't really want to ingest microcrystalline cellulose, which is refined wood pulp. They use it as a texturizer, an anti-caking agent, a fat substitute, an emulsifier, an extender, and a bulking agent in food production. [source: wikipedia] So basically, they threw some extra junk in there to get away from giving us actual food.

 
My recipe has four simple ingredients. You will need an ice cream maker for this recipe, unless you want to make them similar to a Popsicle®'s consistency. To make the bar shape you can purchase a mold or use small disposable cups with wood craft sticks.


Ingredients

• 2 cans full fat coconut milk (about 13.5oz each)
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (check the label to make sure the only ingredient is cocoa!)
• 1 pinch of salt

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the coconut milk and honey.
2. Gradually whisk in the 2/3 cup cocoa powder by dumping in a bit at a time. Cocoa likes to float along the surface of liquids rather than soak it up. Just keep whisking away, though, and eventually it will comply. It will take on the texture, look, and smell of melted ice cream.
3. Add the pinch of salt and give it one last good whisking.
4. Dump the mixture into your ice cream machine and process according to your machine's directions. This recipe fills my 2 qt ice cream maker and it takes me 30 minutes.
5. When done, remove the ice cream to a separate large bowl to prevent it from freezing to the sides of the machine.
6. With a small spoon, drop the ice cream into your mold. Ensure you tamp down each spoonful thoroughly to avoid air pockets or your bars may break when removing from the mold. Freeze any leftovers in an airtight container (place a layer of plastic wrap flush across the top to prevent frost) to be enjoyed as ice cream.
7. Place the tops on the mold (or put your craft sticks centered in each cup about 3/4 to the bottom and cover with plastic wrap) and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours.
8. When ready to enjoy you may have to use a little elbow grease to rock the bars back and forth to release from the mold. 
9. Enjoy immediately as they will melt!

Note: My mold had 6 bars in it so I had some ice cream left over. I prefer to freeze this recipe into bars because if you have just a tub of ice cream, after you leave it in the freezer long enough it hardens up so much that you have to leave it sitting out to soften up just to eat it. This way it goes right from the freezer to my belly!

Your cocoa powder should only have 1 ingredient.

This does NOT want to be mixed.

 

Like melty ice cream.

 

whirrrrrrrr!

Spoon it in bit by bit. (If you spill any on top, just clean it off with a paper towel prior to putting in the freezer.

Tamp it down well with your spoon to avoid air bubbles.

Seal 'er up and freeze it!

Uh-oh! Didn't do a good job getting rid of that air!

Frozen Fudgy Perfection