Relationships stress me out. And I’m not even in one. But many of my friends are, and their relationships REALLY stress me out. They’re so overwhelming at times. They like each other, then they hate each other. They complain about each other, then they can’t take their hands off each other. They’re like children. And I don’t like children.
I know for a fact my food will never complain, that’s why I’m in a relationship with it. I take good care of my food and it takes good care of me. We have a very understanding and healthy relationship. I may seem weird and kind of like a leper with the amount of time I spend in the house, in my kitchen, on a Friday night, but I’m sure as hell not fighting with my food at the bar, while others stare on with drunken eyes. I hate drunken people fights. I love watching them. Car wreck in human form.
The moral to this story is – annoying relationships suck. So get out of them if you are one of the people that fills their friends ears with complaints about their significant other. We don’t care. Your significant other obviously doesn’t care. So you shouldn’t care. And you should find yourself a new partner. Meaning paleo food. Like this recipe. Why wouldn’t you make CARAMEL BARS your new lover? I’ve done it twice now. Two times. Two times a lady, if you will.
Chocolate Coffee Caramel Bars
- Yield: 3-4 1x
Ingredients
For the crust
- 12 dried figs (or dates, if you prefer), stems removed
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/4 cup Unsweetended Shredded Coconut
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 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
For the topping
- 1 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips or dark chocolate, melted
- 1/4 cup canned coconut milk
- 2 teaspoons ground coffee
- coarse sea salt, to top
Instructions
- First make your crust. Add all of your crust ingredients into a food processor and mix until well combined. Add the crust mixture to abread pan and push down until the mixture is flat. Like a crust. Duh.
- Now add your dates and pulse 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. May take 3-5 minutes, tops.
- Pour caramel over your crust and spread evenly.
- Now you will want to melt your chocolate. You could do this in a double boiler or just the microwave. I chose the latter.
- Melt chocolate and coconut milk together in the microwave. Heating for 30 seconds then mixing well and reheating when necessary.
- Once your chocolate is completely melted, add your ground coffee and mix well.
- Pour melted chocolate over your caramel and spread evenly.
- Add coarse sea salt on top of the chocolate.
- Put in freezer to let chocolate harden. Around 10+ minutes.
- Eat!!
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More Layered Ideas For Ya:
Chocolate “Peanut Butter” Cookie Bars
Holiday Raspberry Caramel Tart
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Just put these in the freezer, and can’t WAIT to taste them. For the water for the caramel, I used the water the dates soaked in. Why waste it? And even though I like coffee, I wasn’t crazy about the idea of adding coffee grounds to the topping, so I used cocoa nibs instead. Tick, tock, tick, tock…… I have to wait 10 minutes? Really? Thanks for the great recipes!!
Amazing. Just made them. Am in love.
These are amazing… Wouldn’t change a thing about them. Had a CF birthday party to got to tonight and they were a hit!!
These were a HUGE HIT! Friends, husband, kids (paleo and non) were all raving. The ‘caramel’ alone was amazing. That’s going over some bananas or plantains someday. Love your blog! Good luck at Regionals this weekend!
I added a little pecan pie butter with the almond butter, nom nom…and I forgot to add the water & vanilla to the caramel, whoops! But they’re SO good! Salty & sweet! I’m obsessed with the caramel!! & omgosh, I had no idea melting chocolate in the microwave was so easy! I’ve burned chocolate on the stove a couple times before and thought I’d never have smooth, silky chocolate without a stupid double boiler. Yay! Can’t wait to make the Caramel Pecan Bars! Keep the sweets comin’!
I’m making these tonight (it’s 10:30) for my Sister who is arriving for the weekend. My question is how much water do you soak the dates in? and am I supposed to use the soaking water AND the dates..or just the softened dates. I’m confused. Thanks.
Just enough to cover the dates Marianne
Thought you might like to know that I am making this for my husband and I to take with us on date night Saturday night. We used to go to Cold Stone for a fun dessert, but now we are taking this with us, instead!
I made these last night as a special Cinco De Mayo Treat, and OMG they are HEAVENLY / LETHAL!!
I didn’t have a bread pan, so I just spread out the ingredients in a Pie Pan and they turned out great!
Also, didn’t have the chocolate chips that you referenced, so I just used a few squares of 100% Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate and melted w/ the coconut milk and a little raw honey – AH-MAZING.
I ate about a fifth of the recipe last night (OOPS!!!), which is clearly a testament of my lack of self control when sweets are in the house. . LOL! I’ll be slicing up the rest and freezing in little individually portioned ziploc bags for future indulgences 🙂
Good Luck in the final event of Regionals this afternoon!
Best paleo treat i’ve ever made and thanks to you i’m getting fat on these!! ha
Congrates on your regionals performance!
Thank you Juli! These are AMAZING. I never though Paleo treats could actually taste good. You proved me wrong!