You don’t have to make this real food tootsie roll recipe into the shape of Legos, but for real. They do taste better this way.
When I decided to be intentional about helping Malachi learn to cook, I knew I’d need to start him with something simple, sweet, and fun. Hey, Malachi! Want to put your soccer ball away and come make a boring meat and vegetable casserole all by yourself?!! You don’t?!?
My Peanut Butter Honey Fudge recipe seemed like a fun and perfect choice…except for the fact that Malachi hates peanut butter. “Hey, Malachi! Want to come make something that will make you totally gag? You don’t?!?
So I decided to go ahead and use the fudge recipe but adapt it in two ways:
- Use almond butter instead of peanut butter.
- Cut down the honey to make it less sugary.
He was on board to “try making fudge,” then he remembered his Lego Shape Molds. “Can I make this into Legos, Mom?” Well, yeah!! What a great way to make this project even more perfect for him!
Be sure to admire the messy counter-top behind my kid. Whoever was supposed to load the dishwasher that morning hadn’t done it yet. I figure you’ve seen a messy counter-top before, but if not, I’m thrilled to offer you your first experience with this. #embracethemess #constantdishesandlaundry
Malachi made some of the mixture into Lego Bricks, some into Lego Mini-Figures, then patted the rest into a small container which we cut into squares later. When all was said and done, we decided that these actually don’t taste like fudge at all. But they do taste like an amazing homemade tootsie roll!!!! To eat a tootsie roll made with real food and shaped like a Lego – that Malachi had made by himself?! Well, it was a kids-cooking success!
Homemade Real Food Tootsie Roll Recipe
- 1 cup almond butter
- ¼ cup honey
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- Measure all ingredients into a small pan.
- Melt and stir them over low heat until the chocolate chips have melted and the ingredients are well combined.
- Spread mixture into an 8x8 inch dish or press small amounts of the mixture into fun silicone molds.
- Place in the refrigerator to chill for about an hour before serving.

Use my recipe and instructions for making Homemade Almond Butter if you like. You can switch out the almond butter for Peanut Butter if you prefer.
This Tootsie Roll recipe is what launched Malachi into his new world of discovering that cooking isn’t so bad!
If you’re wanting to pull your kids into the kitchen to launch them into their own journey to learning cooking skills, I recommend that you:
- Begin with a very easy recipe – like these Homemade Tootsie Rolls!
- Pick something fun – like these Homemade Tootsie Rolls!
- Choose something you know your child will like to eat.
- Be relaxed. (You can do it!)
- Get out (or have your child help you get out) the ingredients your child will need before you start the cooking process.
- Be open to your child’s suggestions.
- Don’t back down. Your kids NEED to learn how to cook.
I’m excited to show you the fun Recipe Card Holder craft! Plus more kid-friendly recipes throughout the rest of this week! As you can tell, teaching my kids to cook has been so boring and sad we can’t even stand it. Eating Homemade Tootsie Rolls is so difficult and turning over a big part of my kitchen workload to my kids has been such a challenge. Somehow I’ll make it through. #yeahright #lovingthis #teachyourkidstocookalready
Psst!
Teach your kids some great cooking skills through the Kids Cook Real Food video series. Learn about it here. The knife skills series is free, but we loved it so much we went through the entire course. Malachi learned a ton and is now so much more confident with his cooking skills!
This recipe contains affiliate links.
I’m so excited to try this! My daughter loves Tootsie Roll’s, but we recently found out that she can’t have them because of dairy. I was so thrilled to hear you were going to post the recipe, but I was a little worried about rolling them out into long rolls and then forming them! So this seems nice and easy. (Fortunately I remembered from your peanut butter Cap’n Crunch recipe that you like easy recipes!)
I love Tootsie Rolls – so I have to try these!
You had me at tootsie rolls!
Oh my goodness. Must make this. Any chance it will work with peanut butter? Otherwise, I guess I’ll have to buy my first almond butter ever just to get this right!
Yep, peanut butter works!
Tell Malachi he did a great job…..and I will let my granddaughter try this recipe the next time she spends the nite :)…..she loves tootsie rolls……l