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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I have a quick question for you. I am making these right now and have the dates soaking and I was wondering if you also include the water that the dates have soaked in when you add the dates to the food processor? I noticed in the recipe that you do add water to this so I am assuming you drain the dates first, but wanted to make sure. Thank you!
drain the dates first and use some separate water 🙂
Ok, I’ve only made the crust so far, but omgosh!!!!!! THANK YOU for exposing me to pecan butter!!!!! I’m going to make a gallon after i make these bars!!!! If I even smell almond butter now I gag, I’m so over it. Pecan butter has changed my life. You’re the greatest.
I’m super stoked to make these! I have a bag of already-ground pecan meal – do you know approx how much the whole pecans ground down to, so I could sub the right amount?
I’d say around 1 cup 🙂
So, I put my mom on a paleo diet and she was complaining about not having a sweet treat now and again, so I whipped up a batch of these yesterday. And can I just say…so freakin’ good. I was also licking many a bowls afterwards.
I finally made the carmel!!! I cheated and put it on a gluten free brownie mix BUT the carmel was the best part! So delicious
I’m getting hungry just by looking at the pictures! 😀
I made these for a dinner party tonight (along with your jambalaya recipe) and they were a HUGE hit! Thank you so much for sharing your recipes…you’re helping to make my transition to the paleo lifestyle go so smoothly!!
I want to make these for my boyfriends bday get-together this weekend. My question is, if I want to make these in a 9×13 pan, do you think I should double or triple the recipe?? How many squares did you get out of the loaf pan?
Most likely triple. And I think I got 9 bars out of the loaf pan
Can you tell me the size of your loaf pan? My crust was way too thick – almost 1.5 to 2 inches. Also, is there a rule of thumb regarding soaking the dates? Can you soak them too long? I am wondering because I think my caramel was way too (liquidy) so I wondered if it was due to soaking the dates too long.
Hey Tracy! I use a 9.3×5.2 loaf pan (I know, weird numbers). As for the dates, I wouldn’t soak for longer than an hour and a half. If they were too liquidy, it could be the amount of coconut milk or water you used, so just slowly add those ingredients and see how it turns out!
New to Paleo and I love your website. I just bought the ingredients for this recipe and cannot wait to make it! You have some great content here. Thank you!