These peanut butter pumpkin salted caramels will get you in the holiday spirit no matter how much you’re dragging your feet on your Christmas preparations. How did we get to the middle of December already?? My mother always started her Christmas baking around December 8 or so, and maybe it was just to put off going shopping! Now that I’m in the midst of my own crowd-fighting experiences every time I go out, this makes all the sense in the world. I’d much rather be in the kitchen than the mall.
Although I usually make cookies at Christmas-time (and I will!), the thought of making some little (relatively healthy) chocolate bites totally appealed to me. Because to be honest, I’m not so much of a cookie person. Gahhh!!! I know… am I really even a person?? Call it sacrilege, but I’ll take rich dark chocolate over a cookie any day.
Especially if it has a soft, gooey filling like this pumpkin peanut butter caramel. Pumpkin & peanut butter are natural partners, did you know? And with a crisp chocolate coating studded with sea salt… well, you can see how these guys can be addictive. Luckily they contain no butter or sugar- just dates, peanut butter, pureed cooked pumpkin, & vanilla protein powder. So simple.
Making them is pretty simple too… just blend up the filling in your food processor…
roll it out between 2 pieces of parchment & freeze it…
cut it into squares…
and dip it into the chocolate. Voila! Your treats await.
Store them in the fridge if you live anywhere it gets over 10 degrees C. But if it’s really winter where you live, they might survive on the counter… until they call your name… over and over… keeping you from going shopping once again. But there’s worse things than being stuck in the house with a fresh batch of these sea salt caramels. Believe me, I know!
Enjoy, friends!
Ingredients
- 15 dates, pitted
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 2-3 T. almond milk
- ¼ cup powdered peanut butter
- ¼ cup vanilla protein powder (I used Vega Sport Performance)
- 200gm 70% dark chocolate
- 1 t. extra-virgin coconut oil
- coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Place dates in a high-speed blender or food processor and process until a paste forms. Add pumpkin & peanut butter and process again until smooth. If your mixture seems dry or crumbly, add the almond milk until it resembles a thick paste. Next add the powdered peanut butter and protein powder and process again to form dough. Mixture will be sticky.
- Roll dough out between 2 pieces of parchment or waxed paper to a thickness of about ½ cm (¼ inch.) Freeze for 30-45 minutes. Remove and cut into small squares. Freeze again while you melt the chocolate.
- In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate and coconut oil together over low heat. Using 2 forks, dip caramel squares one by one into the chocolate, scraping off excess. Set on parchment to dry.
- Once mostly dry, sprinkle with sea salt & refrigerate to finish setting. Store in the fridge. Makes about 48 caramels.
Notes
Prep time includes freezing time for the filling.
These were so easy to make, and so delicious to eat. Will definitely make these for Xmas xxx
They were so easy, weren’t they?? Totally addictive too! I’ll think of you as we’re also enjoying them over the Christmas break! xoxo