Deliciously rich low carb chocolate fudge with a layer of creamy peanut butter. This is hands down the best low carb fudge recipe I’ve ever made and it’s easy too!
Don’t you hate it when you discover that you’ve been doing things the hard way? I have apparently been doing things the hard way for a couple of years now and I am distressed to find out that things could have been so much easier. All. This. Time. All this time I’ve been thinking that low carb fudge was really hard to make, that I had to boil up some of my low carb sweetened condensed milk to make anything resembling really good fudge. Yes, yes, I know there is some easy low carb fudge made with cream cheese and it’s one of the first things that everyone makes when they come to the low carb, high fat way of life. But that’s not really fudge, in my humble opinion. It’s good enough, it’s okay, but let’s face it: it tastes like cream cheese mixed with chocolate and that’s not really what fudge tastes like. Certainly not like the fudge I grew up with!
I wanted real, honest to goodness low carb fudge and I made it a few years ago with this Fruit and Nut Fudge that combined my low carb sweetened condensed milk with unsweetened chocolate and some sweetener. This is the easy fudge we all grew up making, where we bought a can of condensed milk and tossed in a pan with chocolate chips, right? Surely you did this. But to make it low carb, I had to go the extra mile of making the sugar-free condensed milk and then mixing it up with the other ingredients. Not exactly hard, but not exactly easy either.
But when I managed to make real chocolate ganache by heating some cream with sweetener and then melting the chocolate into that, I knew I was onto something. The center of my Chocolate Ganache Macaroon Tart was so fudgy when it was chilled, I knew that with a few tweaks it would make amazing fudge on its own.
But you know I can’t leave well enough alone, right? I mean, if you are just looking for plain old chocolate fudge with no fancy inclusions or a yummy peanut butter filling, by all means go ahead and just make the chocolate part, spread it in your pan and be done. That’s cool, you’re a purist, I get it. But if you’re like me and always itching to jazz something up, then you will love the peanut butter layer of this amazing fudge. It’s pretty easy too, just melt some PB, mix in a little sweetener and vanilla and layer it all together. It’s like an extra-fudgy, gooey peanut butter cup and the very thought makes me weak in the knees. Excuse me while I head to the kitchen to make some more.
Be sure to check out this super easy 2 Ingredient Fudge from Allergylicious. Make it low carb with some sugar-free chocolate!
Peanut Butter Cup Fudge
Ingredients
Chocolate Layers:
- 1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon liquid stevia depending on how sweet you like it
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 ounces good quality unsweetened chocolate finely chopped
Peanut Butter Layer:
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup powdered Swerve Sweetener
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper and oil the paper.
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the whipping cream, sweeteners, and vanilla extract until sweeteners dissolve.
- Bring to just a simmer, remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate. Let sit 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth.
- Pour half into the prepared pan and spread evenly to the edges. Transfer to the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm, and put a lid over the remaining chocolate to keep warm.
- Meanwhile, place peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high in 30 second increments until melted. Stir in sweetener and vanilla extract.
- Remove first chocolate layer from freezer and pour peanut butter layer overtop, spreading to the edges. Return to freezer for a few minutes to firm up.
- Finally, spread remaining chocolate mixture over peanut butter. Refrigerate until set, about 1 to 2 hours. Cut into small squares.
RELATED POSTS
Deborah Ford says
Can chocolate chips be used instead of chocolate squares? Same amount?
Carolyn says
No this recipe requires unsweetened chocolate and chocolate chips are sweetened. It won’t work very well, I am afraid.
Danielle says
Hi could I use unsweetened cocoa powder instead of the chopped chocolate?
Carolyn says
Hi Danielle. You can, but you also need to add more fat to get the cocoa powder to behave like chocolate. Here’s a good conversion https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/08/substitute-chocolate-cocoa-powder.html
Chelesa says
This is seriously the most amazing treat! We love this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing!
Julie Blanner says
Yum! I love making fudge for the holidays, and having it low carb makes me feel so much better about eating more than one! Can’t wait to add it to the baking list for the holidays,
Matt Taylor says
This looks incredible! I love fudge and peanut butter. 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
Jennifer says
LOVE fudge for the holidays, and I am so excited to try your recipe with it being low carb! I know it’s going to taste amazing!
Taylor says
This fudge is so delicious! Chocolate and peanut butter is my absolute favorite combination!
Melissa says
Very good – perfect sweet treat!
Julia F says
I love when simple recipes taste outstanding and this is one of them!
Cheryl S says
I love that I can make these and not feel like I’m missing out!!
Toni says
My kids really loved these treats! They can’t stop eating!
Billy says
So delicious, like having a homemade reese’s right at home!
Stephanie N. says
Not sure if anyone commented this yet or not but I made this with almond milk instead of heavy cream and it turned out perfect. I did have to add an ounce or so more chocolate to get it to thicken up. It is delicious!!
Carolyn says
Glad to hear it!
Andrea says
Hi! I’m very new to the low carb thing and I think I’m doing something wrong. When I enter this into myfitnesspal, it tells me the carbs are 10 which is way off (I also made cookie today that were supposed to be 3 carbs but myfitnesspal said they were 12…so I know it’s an error on my end ). Any idea what I could be doing wrong?
Carolyn says
MFP is counting the erythritol which has zero carb impact. That’s probably the error there.
VHM says
I made this today. It is in the refrigerator cooking, but of course I had to ‘clean the bowl’ and it is delicious. Thank you for this wonderful fudge recipe that is really fudgy and not ‘chocolate cream cheese’!
I eliminated the peanut butter layer. I cannot bring PB into my home because I love it too darn much.
I couldn’t find a Girardelli baking bar in the store today, so I used Baker’s brand.
In lieu of PB I added in 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 2 TB dry cranberries and 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut. I sprinkled some coconut over the top, too, for appearance.
I am confident this will be delicious.
Anj says
This was delicious! I followed the recipe exactly and the texture was perfect – exactly as fudge should be! It is not as tooth-achingly sweet as regular fudge, but I liked it (and I have a huge sweet tooth). I also didn’t feel as weighed down as when I eat regular fudge. There is a bit of sweetener after taste (as you find with all low carb sweets), but I actually found that this dissipated a bit after day 1 for some reason. I’ve been storing leftovers in the freezer and just let a square sit out on the counter for a little while whenever I would like a piece. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
Rachael says
I made this recipe with stevia (it was easiest to find) and it was pretty awful. Perhaps I’m just sensitive to artificial sweeteners tasting like laboratory cleaning supplies. I’m contemplating getting some other kind of sweetener and I think if I had mixed the chocolate and peanut butter together it wouldn’t have been as pretty but would have tasted much better.
Additionally, the fats formed white hard deposits on the top of the fudge as they solidified. I guess they separated out? Pretty gross if you look at it long enough to notice. I probably won’t retry this recipe anytime soon.
Carolyn says
It would be pretty awful with stevia, indeed. Stevia and chocolate create a bitterness that it unpalatable to many people. It would also be the cause of the separating. Swerve has pre-biotic fibers in it that help bring things together and that doesn’t happen when you use it. I write recipes based on certain ingredients and I simply cannot guarantee the results if you choose to make major substitutions like this.
Rachael says
HAHA, I’m glad you wrote those first two lines. Pretty funny! Yeah, it was my first time doing any thing keto AND sweet. I generally stay away from stevia/fake sweeteners. I will say it got a bit better after the flavors got to meld for a few days. I’ve been reading your responses about the Swerve so I’ll look into it more. But you find the liquid stevia is better tasting than the powdered one?
Carolyn says
In terms of sweetness, I don’t favour liquid stevia over powdered. But you usually need less of the powdered (about half). Now, I do object to the term “fake” sweeteners because I don’t use any. Both Swerve and stevia are all natural. 🙂
Karen says
Hi.,.. Can I use 85% cocoa or cacao bar chocolate instead of the unsweetened baking chocolate? Would love to try these tonight but don’t have baking chocolate on hand. Thanks!
Carolyn says
Unsweetened chocolate tends to make it thicker so you may find you have to add a tbsp or two of cocoa powder to thicken the fudge up properly.
Karen says
Thanks!
Ann McRae says
Another yummy recipe!!! This is super creamy fudge. I added less swerve/sweetener than you suggested to accommodate my level of preferred sweetness and only had crunchy peanut butter on hand and it came out wonderfully. A delicious recipe! Thank you!