goey goodness
Wow, these are some tasty vegan treats! I was craving something sweet recently but didn’t want to eat something with white, refined sugar. I have been dying to try these bars out for a while and I finally had time (and the ingredients on hand!) to craft these chocolate squares of goodness! This recipe comes from The Happy Pear; a plant based food company founded by two guys from Ireland. Dave and Steve with The Happy Pear labeled these bars as chocolate salted caramel bars but I am renaming them as Goey Goodness! If this is your first time trying vegan caramel (or if you are a caramel lover), then you might not feel like these quite live up to the name of caramel. Making vegan caramel is super easy but it make take a couple of tries to get the consistency and taste exactly right.
This recipe has to be made in three stages. Don’t let that put you off! Each stage is relatively quick! I used almond butter for the base layer and peanut butter for the caramel and it worked out great. If you like ‘salted caramel’ then I would suggest adding some salt flakes to the chocolate layer as well as making sure you are using high quality salt throughout the recipe.
Base layer
150 g almond butter
150 g raw almonds
100 g pitted dates - ideally Medjool
1 tablespoons vanilla essence
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Pinch salt
Caramel filing
300 g pitted dates - ideally Medjool
100 g almond or cashew or peanut butter
10-14 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons coconut oil
1 large pinch of salt add more if you like it
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Chocolate Layer
300g dark chocolate
Creating the Magic!
Base layer:
Prepare your baking dish - I used a baking dish that was 11 inches by 8 inches and lined it with parchment paper (this makes removing the bars super easy!)
In a food processor blend the almonds first into a flour like consistency – then add the almond butter, dates, vanilla essence and the coconut oil, and blend until you reach a breadcrumb like texture.
Remove and add to your prepared pan - press down to form an even, uniform layer. I like to use another piece of parchment paper over the top and then press down on this piece of paper.
Place in fridge.
Caramel layer:
In the same food processor add all ingredients for the caramel layer and blend until super smooth and caramel-like, this may take up to 5 minutes depending on your food processor and you may need to add a little more water if it is a bit clumpy and not blending!
Once ready, add to your prepared pan. Spread the caramel layer over the top of the base layer.
Place the pan in the freezer for a couple of hours.
Remove from the freezer. Remove the base and caramel from the pan by lifting the parchment paper out of the pan.
Place on a chopping board. If you would like to make bars, cut the the base and filling into even size approx 6x3cm bars. Remove the parchment paper.
These treats are pretty rich, so small squares also work well.
Chocolate
Melt your chocolate by using a water bath (or in a microwave).
Line a baking tray with baking parchment for your finished bars to cool on.
Once chocolate is melted, put one of the bars on a knife and hold over the bowl of melted chocolate. Ladle the melted chocolate over the bar to cover all sides, then place it on the lined baking tray to cool and for the chocolate to harden. Repeat with the remaining bars till they are all covered. Leave to cool at room temperature or if you can’t wait put them in the fridge to cool to speed things up!!
Enjoy!! Keep them in the fridge in an airtight container.
** Note - if your dates are not super fresh and feel a little hard, you can soften them by adding some boiling water to a bowl with the dates. Let them soften for 10 minutes. I then used this warm water to make the caramel.
** Note - for the chocolate layer, I simply dunked my squares in the melted chocolate making sure to coat all sides. It wasn’t pretty but it was very quick! The bars need to be very cold (i.e. straight from the freezer) if you want to go this route otherwise the caramel will melt as you are dunking the squares into the melted chocolate.