Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Popcorn Fudge
This no-bake Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Popcorn Fudge is soft, chewy, AND crunchy. You’d never know it’s sugar free, high protein, and gluten free too!
Chocolate.
Peanut Butter.
Popcorn!
Hey, take that back! That isn’t a weird combo of ingredients! Okay, maybe it is… but let me tell you, it’s delicious. It’s salty, it’s sweet, it’s crunchy, it’s chewy, it’s satisfying, it’s healthy. Wait, what?!?
This Peanut Butter Chocolate Popcorn Fudge is… healthy?
Oh, you bet 🙂
So, I was a little over-excited when I found a healthy popcorn at the grocery store (the majority of microwaveable popcorn have partially hydrogenated oils, trans fats, preservatives, excessive salt, and the list goes on…), so naturally, I had to make a dessert out of it.
Yes, a dessert out of popcorn. And it was a success. Even though most of the popcorn didn’t stay whole, it still provided that familiar, airy crunch to the salty-sweet fudge.
Healthy Peanut Butter Chocolate Popcorn Fudge
Ingredients
- 5 cups Organic Popcorn **
- 1 cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- 3.5 oz No-Sugar-Added Milk Chocolate
- 128g (½ cup) Natural Peanut Butter (no sugar/salt/oil added)
- 64g (2 scoops) Chocolate Whey Protein Powder
- ¼ cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
- ½ tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
Instructions
- Line a 9" brownie pan (or 8" brownie pan for thicker fudge) with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, stir together the popcorn, oats, and salt.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, add the chocolate and peanut butter. Microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring between each one, until melted. Whisk in the protein powder one scoop at a time (it should look like frosting). Whisk in the almond milk and stevia extract.
- Dump the popcorn mixture into the chocolate/PB mixture and fold together. Scoop into the prepared pan and flatten it out (I used a pastry roller). Refrigerate for 2+ hours to firm up, then slice with a sharp knife. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Enjoy!
.
With love and good eats,
.
– Jess
.
Indulge − no strings attached!
These look delicious! Nice and simple too. Could I use flour instead of protein powder?
Thanks! I’m not sure if flour can replace protein powder as protein powder dissolves readily into liquids, but you can try using ~4 tbs of a soft flour (like oat flour) plus ~4 tbs of something else, like dried milk or cocoa powder maybe? Just be sure to add some more stevia because protein powder comes pre-sweetened. It never hurts to taste the “batter” as you go along 😉
Hope it all works out!
-Jess
try unbleached parchment paper, it is safer than “aluminum” foil and works wayyy better. i’m making these today for the
kids thanks so much!
Anonymous-
Thanks for the tip! I updated the post directions 🙂
These look amazing! Do you have any calorie/nutritional information for these?
I didn’t make a nutrition label for this because popcorn ranges widely in calories/fat/fiber, and same goes with peanut butter and protein powder. This is the program I use and love it!
http://www.shopncook.com/nutritionFactsLabel.html
But just a guestimation on my products’ labels, 1/16th of the recipe/one fudge square will have 120 calories, 6.5g fat and 6g protein… pretty good considering how unhealthy it tastes! Hope this helped 🙂
Can PureVia (powder sweetener made from stevia extract)be used instead of the stevia extract?
Anonymous- the stevia extract I used is a concentrated liquid sweetener (as little as 6-8 drops can sweeten up bitter coffee!), but I’m sure you can use purevia instead, though. If it measures cup-for-cup like sugar, try using around ~1/4 cup plus ~3 tbs of almond milk. Just taste the “batter” as you go along–if it needs to be sweeter, add some more purevia! Just make sure that the mixture isn’t too dry or wet, it should look nice and fudgy 🙂
Hope it works!
-Jess
Hey, Jessica… When I was growing up, we didn’t have microwave popcorn (heck, I’m so old, they didn’t even have microwaves!). If you don’t like all the bad stuff, just as I don’t, make yourself some good old fashioned popcorn yourself. Put a tablespoon or two of coconut oil in a large’ish saucepot (enough to cover the bottom) then add a layer of popcorn kernels (Use organic if you must, but the ingredient list is more than likely always just popcorn). Just enough to cover the bottom is enough or you’ll literally pop the top off your pot. With the top on the pot, just shake it back and forth for a few minutes, and keep shaking until the popping subsides, and there you have it… pure, unadulterated, fresh-as-you-can-get popcorn. Enjoy!
I almost forgot… shake it back and forth over med-hi heat until popping subsides. Sorry! 🙂
Oh wow, that’s such a great idea! I didn’t know you could make popcorn at home, definitely going to try that ASAP, especially now that I have a bunch of new food allergies, it will be nice to know the food I’m making is safe for me to eat. I recall the package saying it was processed on equipment with soy and milk 🙁
Thanks so much for the recipe!
-Jess
*runs off to grocery store to buy kernels*
And, if you sprinkle it with some nutritional yeast while it is still hot and somewhat steamy, it’ll give it a nice salty’ish, parmesan-cheesy taste while adding a multitude of B vitamins!! 🙂