Toasted pecans and naturally sweetened date caramel smothered in sugar-free dark chocolate!
These are the perfect little delights to satisfy your sweet tooth without any added sugar. The toasted pecans add a ‘buttery’ flavor and a crunch to the date caramel, and the chocolate not only tastes delicious but also keeps the sticky caramel contained. I like to use Bake Believe sugar-free dark chocolate for this recipe, but any chocolate would work – just make sure it is a dark, less sweet chocolate to balance out the very sweet caramel. And no need to worry about doing too much damage with these clusters, it is actually hard to eat more than one!
Yield: ~ 20 clusters
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups pecans, roughly chopped 2 cups (1 pound) pitted medjool dates ½ cup+ 2 Tablespoons boiling water ¼ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 ½ cups dark chocolate of choice (for sugar-free, I like the Bake Believe brand) 1 teaspoon coconut oil
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Spread the roughly chopped pecans onto the baking tray and toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the nuts to cool completely.
To make the date caramel, place the pitted dates, boiling water, salt, and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor and blend until creamy and lighter in color (this will take several minutes).
On the same tray lined with parchment paper used in step two, divide the nuts into at least 20 little piles. Place a spoon of date caramel on top of each pile of nuts, making sure all the nuts are touching the caramel.
Place the chocolate and the coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl, and melt in 30-second intervals until smooth, stirring after each interval.
Spoon melted chocolate over each cluster and place the tray in the freezer to set. Once solid, remove the clusters from the tray and store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
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