Gluten-Free Salted Sunbutter Caramels
Start drooling because these Gluten-Free Salted Sunbutter Caramel covered in chocolate are bites of heaven. Sunflower seed butter, date caramel, dark chocolate, cassava flour, and maple syrup makes these bars both salty and sweet. Gluten-free, nut-free, and paleo-approved.
Servings: 9 mini bars
Equipment
- double boiler
Ingredients
- ½ cup Organic Sunbutter
- ¼ cup Otto's Cassava Flour
- 1 tablespoon Otto's Cassava Flour
- 16 whole Medjool Dates, pitted and soaked
- 5 whole dark chocolate bars, gluten-free, sugar-free
- up to 2 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
- ½ teaspoon pink Himalayan salt or sea salt for garnish
Instructions
STEP 1
- Soak Medjool dates ahead of time by pitting them and adding them to a bowl of hot water. Cover and let soak for up to 1 hour.
- After dates are soaked, drain the dates and discard the water. Add dates to a food processor and blend until creamy. This will take about 5 minutes, and the color will change from a medium brown color to a light brown color and that is how you will know the mixture is ready.
- Add the mixture to a pastry bag with a large round tip, or just cut the tip of a plastic pastry bag and refrigerate to thicken. I like Wilton Disposable Pastry bags.
STEP 2
- While the date mixture is soaking, mix creamy sunflower seed butter with cassava flour in a bowl with a fork until a cookie dough consistency forms. You will want to use the brand Sunbutter because a creamy sunflower butter is needed for this recipe.
- Form dough with your hands into rectangular logs and put in a tray lined with parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes to an hour. You will want the dough to be somewhat hardened so it doesn’t melt when you cover it in chocolate.
STEP 3
- Once somewhat hardened, pipe date mixture on top of the sunflower seed logs, and flatten piped mixture with your fingers and then freeze again till fully hardened.
STEP 4
- In the meantime, melt 4 chocolate bars in a double boiler on low heat. Add coconut oil to thin the mixture, 1 teaspoon at a time to think the chocolate.
- Once chocolate is melted, take logs out of the freezer and (it’s gonna be messy) pour chocolate mixture over each log. You may need to use your fingers to manipulate the chocolate. And don’t worry about the mess! Once all the tops are covered in the chocolate, add a few pink Himalayan sea salt crystals and freeze again for about 15 minutes.
- Then prepare more melted chocolate using the remaining 1 bar and coconut oil so you have enough to cover the bottom. Remove from freezer and with your hands dip the bottom portion of the logs into the melted chocolate. It may seem like the logs are melting, but don’t worry it won’t ruin the dessert. Once all sides are covered in chocolate freeze until ready to serve.
- Always store in the freezer, and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Notes
- Want to skip the double boiler option? You can also melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30-SECOND intervals until melted, one bar at a time.
- To thin chocolate mixture and make it more dippable add coconut oil and 1 tsp. intervals and up to 2 tablespoon for the whole chocolate batch.
- Allergic to coconut? Use Ghee instead.
- Using a chocolate bar that is sweetened with coconut sugar lowers the glycemic index. But any chocolate bar can work.
- If you cannot get Sunbutter, make sure the sunflower seed butter you choose is creamy. It needs to be creamy to work for this recipe.
- You will have an extra date caramel leftover. You can either discard it. Or you can use it for another recipe or you can pipe thin strips on top of the hardened chocolate, or use it as a dip.