Yep. That just happened.
I LOVE these bars. Pure joy in a bit. Or 18. Whichever route your mouth takes you. These would be perfect for a Saint Patty’s Day celebration! Why? Because I said so. And I was too lazy to create a paleo corned beef and cabbage recipe. Mainly because I didn’t want to eat it. I’m sure it’s delicious, but I’d rather eat caramel bars all day, every day. And I can do all that because it’s my blog. Winning!
I saw a full camouflage truck today. Complete camo. Yeah. That was a good idea.
The other day, my friend Missy gave me the idea of making vanilla chai almond butter. And I did it. And ate it all in one day. I wish I were lying. Thankfully I didn’t make a ton of it because I knew I would be alone in the house with it later that night, but it still stared at me for a good 30 minutes, until I consumed all of it.
I totes have a new crush. Not a man, sadly. I have come to terms with the fact that I will never meet the man of my dreams in Colorado. It’s just fact. I will have to go somewhere far from here to find a normal, attractive, incredibly fantastic man. Who is single. That’s a must…as you’ve heard from my past rants.
Holy balls, tangent, my new crush. Back on it. Her name is Joy, Joy the Baker. My other friend Joy introduced me to Joy the Baker’s blog and I was instantly hooked. All because she’s hilarious, and has some awesome photography. How are all these blog people so good at photography and I suck ass? Probably because I don’t have a crazy amazing camera. Yeah, that’s it, it’s the cameras fault.
Sometimes, when I cook a lot of food, I can smell myself when I workout. Then I want to throw up, mid workout. Like today, while I am doing the Open wod 12.4. 150 wall balls smelling like bacon is sure to make anyone uncomfortable. So excited.
Oh and btw, I will be putting together a post of everything I eat in a day to post on Saturday. Had a few questions about what my daily food intake looks like. It really is different every day so hopefully this helps. You can also look back at my first post about what my day usually looks like! It’s pretty boring. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Caramel Pecan Bars
- Yield: 5-6 1x
Ingredients
For the crust
- 1.5 cups pecans
- 3/4 cup almond flour/meal
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 egg, whisked
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch of salt
For the caramel
- 12–14 medjool dates, pitted and soaked in water for an hour
- 5–6 tablespoons canned coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Add your pecans to a food processor and blend until you get more of a meal or flour, then add your melted coconut oil, raw honey and vanilla until you get a very delicious pecan butter.
- Add that pecan butter to a large bowl then add your almond flour/meal, baking soda and powder and salt, then add your egg and whisk all ingredients together.
- Grease a bread loaf pan with coconut oil and then add your crust ingredients to the pan and use a spoon to spread out evenly.
- Put in oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes or until middle is cooked completely through. Use the toothpick method to test it.
- While the crust bakes, lightly clean out your food processor (I licked it clean so I didn’t have an issue having to use any dish soap. wow.) then add your dates.
- Turn on until dates have broken down (less than a minute) then add your coconut milk tablespoon by tablespoon to the dates while the food processor is still running. Then add your water as well.
- And add your vanilla extract and pinch of salt.
- Process until you get a caramel. BOOM.
- Once your crust is done baking, let cool for about 10-15 minutes.
- Top caramel over crust using a spoon to smooth out.
- Put in fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to set. Or consume right then really.
- Keep in fridge if you have leftovers!
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More Layered Caramel:
Salted Caramel Cookie Ice Cream Cups
Holiday Raspberry Caramel Tart
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OMG…so good! I’ve been lurking a while and this is the first recipe I try from you Juli..and I know that i will be trying many more. Thanks so much for sharing.
BTW! I love your rambling!
thanks so much Denis!!
Loved them~~I made these today and was so excited with the way they turned out! My husband loved them!!
That’s awesome! Glad you two liked them Jann!
Glad it hear it Jann!
Couldn’t wait for chilling in the fridge and had to try some as soon as I finished the caramel topping. These are awesome!! Looking forward to everything melding in the fridge!! Thanks!!
haha me too!!
Hope it melds perfectly!
I get massive acne from all dairy/grains, so I 100% avoid them, and haven’t had anything resembling caramel in 1.5 years now. So I asked a healthy-baking-loving friend to make these because I KNEW I’d have no self-control if this really did taste like caramel. She gave me two, and I can definitely say I made the right choice! HOLY SHIT DELICIOUSNESS.
Can I give it eleventeen stars, please?
Yayyyyy that’s awesome Sabrina!
These were so amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! U are awesome Juli! I had some vanilla coconut milk icecream with a bar last night.
Yummmm! That sounds awesome Laurie!
These are divine!!! How do you come up with this stuff?? Seriously dates=caramel! YUMM!
I actually saw something like it on a vegan website and had to try it out a lil differently! Dates are heaven no matter what
Made these yesterday. Our old oven (being replaced next month) bakes too hot. Even overly browned these things are pure delishiousness. Cannot wait to make them in my new oven. In fact, I think this will be what I test it with!
Freaking ovens. Always do their own damn thing
Just made these and they are definitely going to cf with me tomorrow bc damn Ill eat the who batch haha
Lol yeah I had to pawn them off quickly too1
As a “normal, attractive, incredibly fantastic man, who is single” I’d just like to say that you only have to go far from here to find one of us your age 🙂 The young version is probably difficult to find as I know I was not nearly as fantastic in my 20’s as I am now (well beyond my 20’s).
Aside from that small faux pas I’ve been digging all the paleo treats lately. I made the banana bread (if never made it to the french toast stage as it tasted so good that I ate it before I could toast it. Next batch…) and will try these out soon.
Hope you like them Aaron!
Wow. Holy wow, these are awesome. I think the dates I used were too small because it didn’t seem to make enough caramel… or maybe I just wanted more caramel. Or maybe I ate too much of it while I made it. Seriously though, so good.
Yeah dates are all different sizes, mine were pretty big. Glad you still liked it!