Still I have yet to use dates in any of these dessert recipes and I'm super proud of myself. Dates are amazing and they are so easy to use in raw desserts because they hold ingredients together but you can work around them if you don't feel like buying them or dealing with the extra calories. Dates are best enjoyed slathered in peanut butter and frozen, in my opinion...but unfortunately I eat a ton of them that way too. So I just avoid buying them altogether. I don't miss them that much.
Many of my most recent desserts are made in the same way because they all have a cookie crust and caramel in them. These ingredients and the recipe procedures may sound familiar but there are a few differences among them. Caramel is amazing and I love making it from scratch. I think I've pretty much perfected my date-free, super creamy, rich caramel recipe. The trick? Use a particular liquid sweetener. And it's not maple syrup! You need a thick, molasses-like sweetener. Read on.
1 cup of quick cook oats
1/3 cup of brown rice syrup
2-3 tbsp of water
Caramel
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup of brown rice syrup
2-3 tbsp of water
Chocolate
1/4 cup of full fat coconut milk
3 tbsp of coconut oil
2 tbsp of cocoa powder
1/4 cup of brown rice syrup
Put all the cookie crust ingredients in your food processor and process until it's a sticky crust. Press into bar molds. Put the caramel ingredients in your processor and process until a thick, rich, brown caramel consistency. Scoop onto each crust. Place the molds in the freezer while you make the chocolate. Put all the chocolate ingredients in a small saucepan on the stove and heat slowly, stirring often. The chocolate should be smooth and creamy when finished. Remove from heat and then cool. When the chocolate is cool, coat each bar in it and then freeze them again. The next day or a few hours later, the bars will be ready to eat.
Notes: use coconut palm syrup instead of brown rice syrup. Either sweetener is amazing because they are thick and sweet and make more of a caramel consistency then maple syrup would. Use more coconut oil instead of milk for the chocolate. Of course, if you have dates, you can use the dates for the caramel and crust but the recipes turned out fine without dates. You can use coconut oil in place of the water.
