Natural "caramel" chocolate bites

It is no secret that I am a sugar fiend. I have such a sweet tooth and whilst I know that sugar is the devil in disguise, I still love the stuff!!! However, over the past 12 months I have tried to reduce my intake and have embarked on making my own sweet treats that use natural ingredients for a source of sweetness.

This recipe is from blogger Angela Liddon's "The Oh She Glows Cookbook" that my lovely aunties got me for my birthday.

tasty little bites

These tasty little bites are in the cookbook as "homemade yolos" but seeing as YOLO stands for "you only live once" I weren't quite why they are called this? Is it an American dessert?

"caramel" on the inside, dark chocolate on the outside 

Anyway, these little chocoaltey bites are delicious! The filling tastes like caramel and the hint of chocolate around the balls offers just enough to satisfy my craving without over loading my body with sugar. And you only need a few ingredients! Plus they are gluten free and contain natural sugars and not added white stuff.

Ingredients:

For the filling:
200g of pitted medjool dates
1 tablespoon of smooth peanut butter
tiny pinch of sea salt

For the chocolate coating:
1/2 bar of dark 90% cocoa chocolate (I used Lindt)
1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil

dates - the secret ingredient for making "caramel" 

To make the "caramel" center, process the pitted dates in my favourite kitchen item (aka a food processor until a sticky paste forms

Add the peanut butter and sea salt. You may need to add a teaspoon or so of water here to help with the process, especially as dates can be very dry

Scoop the stick mixture our and pop in to a bowl and in to the freezer for about ten minutes, This chilling makes the caramel easier to shape with your fingers 

ta-dah - peanut butter, dates and salt! 

Line a tray with grease proof paper

Take out the caramel. Wet your hands (this will stop it sticking to your hands as much) and taking a little bit of the mixture, roll into small balls. You should be able to make about 20 balls

Set the balls on the grease proof paper and once you've rolled them up, pop them back in the freezer

Next it is time for the chocolate coating... 

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a small saucepan over a low heat (do not let it boil). 

Once nearly melted, remove the caramel balls from the freezer and dunk each ball in to the chocolate sauce. Either stick in a toothpick and holding that, pour some chocolate sauce all over the  caramel ball. Alternatively, pop a ball in the sauce and roll it around and pop it out with a toothpick 

Tap off the excess, pop them back on to the grease proof paper and then back in to the freezer to set. 

have fun coating these balls of fun 

small balls of tastiness 

These little balls are easy enough and fun to make but are bloody messy! I was covered in sticky dates and I manged to get melted chocolate everywhere. But that might just be me?

These little bite sized goodies are perfect to keep in the freezer for you to nibble on when you need a chocolate fix!!!


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