Chocolate Caramel Bars (RAW + GLUTEN FREE)

Since I took a month off of travelling, I’ve been able to stay on track with my work out routines and healthy eating habits. Whenever I’m having a few good weeks like this, I tend to want to treat myself by indulging in something sweet without falling too far off the wagon. These chocolate caramel bars have been on my list to make for quite some time now and after my first batch, I made a second for my sister and a third for my girlfriends. Can you tell I enjoyed them? They are completely raw, naturally sweetened with dates and completely gluten and dairy free which makes them fairly guilt free. They are something sweet to look forward to after a busy, productive day and they won’t have you feeling like you need to spend an extra hour on the treadmill. The best thing about this dessert, is that it gives you the foundation of what a raw dessert really needs to be to have some stability and structure to it. Once you’ve made this, you can start to play around with different flavour combinations while still keeping the main ingredients in tack. I think next time, I will add in some raspberries to the “caramel” layer for a quick change but for now try the original and treat yo self to this raw dessert.

Chocolate Caramel Bars (by This Rawsome Vegan Life)

Crust: 
1 cup almonds or other nuts
1 cup dates
Pinch of salt (optional)

Caramel:
½ cup cashew butter
½ cup coconut oil
1 cup dates

Chocolate cream:
1/3 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons cacao powder
¼ cup preferred liquid sweetener – I used honey

Directions:

To make the crust: process the almonds into flour in your food processor, then add the dates and process until it all begins to stick together. Press into the bottom of a lined baking pan (I used a small bread pan) and refrigerate.

To make both the caramel and mocha layers: just blend the ingredients in each list until smooth. Spread the caramel onto your crust, followed by the chocolate cream and swirl with a knife. Sprinkle with unsweetened coconut. Refrigerate until completely set; this will take a couple hours.