Valentine’s Chocolate-Covered Banana Caramels

Today I have a wonderful guest post from Brooke (you heard about her recently as she inspired the Vegan Chunky Monkey Oatmeal I recently posted!) who has made a delicious, healthy, perfect recipe for upcoming Valentine’s Day!

Take it away Brookie!

“Ohhh my goodness, how exciting is this!? If youΚΌve been following ChrissyΚΌs blog for awhile, youΚΌve probably already kinda-sorta-Κ»metΚΌ me in her Vegan Chunky Monkey Oatmeal where she put her NITK-spin (by getting rid of any and every miniscule glimmer of sugar, lol) on my breakfast staple. I actually didnΚΌt notice until just now that both these recipes are chocolatey and banana-y… ha ha! I guess I just canΚΌt hide it… I love chocolate and I love banana! πŸ™‚

Anyways, ChristalΚΌs blog truly is her little baby, and for good reason – what an amazing spot, am I right?! Miss Chrissy, and I have not only been besties since the age of 5, but she truly is my soul sister. We have both taken the not-so-beaten-path in life to follow our passions in health, nutrition & fitness and let me tell you – it is not always smooth sailing! For this reason, I am incredibly thankful and blessed to have her by my side for encouragement and support. β™₯ I am so proud of all of her hard work to get to where she has with this project, and so excited get to be a part of the action and kinda-sorta-meet all of you! So! Now that weΚΌve got all of the intros out of the way, on to the good stuff…

I went to see my naturopath (both Christal and I go to the same one – she is seriously unreal and practices out of downtown Edmonton Janice Dacyshyn) a few weeks ago. My eczema was really bothering me, and I was desperate for some answers and relief. After a quick chat, Janice figured itΚΌs one of the common allergens that my body is reacting to (dairy, eggs, soy, gluten or corn). So, to get to the bottom of the problem she recommended an Elimination Diet, which is removing all foods that contain any of those allergens for a month.

Ummmmmm.. I eat very clean 95% of the time, but let me tell you, I love my cheese, my chocolate, and my coffee with cream! You can bet it definitely didnΚΌt take me long to get searching to find a super delicious, clean, and guilt-free chocolate replacement. And oohhhh my goodness. I gotta tell you – the moment I popped one of these guys out of the freezer, I knew I was on to something. These little gems are seriously unreal! 0 sugar, 0 hydrogenated oils, 0 additives – just pure, healthy, wholesome ingredients – and they seriously taste amazing! Not to mention they look like miniature masterpieces. Love.

Because they are made out of coconut oil and donΚΌt have any stabilizers or thickeners added so hey melt pretty quickly at room temp – this isnΚΌt exactly a snack youΚΌd pack and keep in your purse all day. TheyΚΌre more like the ones that you keep in the freezer and have as a sweet afternoon pick-me-up, after dinner treat or late-night snack.page1image26816

My thoughts behind adding the banana was to try to create some volume and filling that was a little lower cal instead of just having the entire thing being filled with chocolate and caramel. If you donΚΌt love or donΚΌt have banana, you could add chopped berries, nuts, or raisins. I actually made these the first time with chopped almonds and raisins and they tasted just like Dairy MilkΚΌs Fruit & Nut bar (uhhhmmm.. yum!!). Once you follow the recipe once through, it really is up to you to add whichever fillings youΚΌd like! I had actually made the caramel a day before, scooped it into a ziploc baggie and stored it in the freezer so these were a little easier to just throw together as opposed to making both the chocolate and caramel on the same day. Up to you, though. πŸ™‚ Anywho! I think itΚΌs time for me to just put a sock in it and just give you the recipe already. IΚΌd love to hear from all of you how you find it! Enjoy β™₯ “

 

 

Thank you Brooke for a fantastic recipe! I can’t wait to make a batch of these delicious delights for Valentine’s Day!

Have a wonderful week!

Christal

Nutritionist in the Kitch

 

Author: Christal Sczebel

Christal is the creator of Nutrition in the Kitch. She's a Certified Nutritional Consultant, twice published author, gluten and dairy free recipe developer, food photographer, speaker, wife, and mama. Christal loves good food, all things wellness, and loves to travel. Her wellness philosophy is centred around balance and sustainable health, life's way too short for boring diets and restriction!

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    • Hi Rosa!

      Thanks so much! If you give the recipe a whirl, I would love it if you tag me so I can see how they turned out! πŸ™‚

  • I just tried to make these and the chocolate will not come together. The coconut oil will not mix with the rest of the ingredients. I even tried putting the hot mixture in the food processor. Any suggestions? Desperate to make these.

    • Hi Chris!

      Hmm.. here a few more details that will hopefully clear things up for you πŸ™‚

      Medium pot, 2 inches water, medium heat, medium bowl so that the steam/heat from the hot water provides heat to melt the ingredients. The ingredients go into the bowl, and do not ever touch the water.

      I always start with the coconut oil, and wait until it’s started to liquefy then add in the cocoa powder. I mix the cocoa powder and coconut oil, then add in the almond butter, and once those are all combined, sprinkle in the coconut.

      It should be a smooth liquid by this point. If you let me know how you did it, I can try to troubleshoot! πŸ˜‰ If the bowl isn’t warm enough, the coconut oil will not melt and it will be a very difficult process! Also, if the almond butter is not stirred, or not fresh it may not work so well (older almond butter tends to get dry).

      Hope this helps! πŸ™‚ let me know!!

    • Thanks Amanda! πŸ™‚ How awesome that they’re actually GOOD for you, right?! Who needs snickers bars, anyways?.. πŸ˜‰

    • Hi Christina! πŸ™‚

      Like I said.. the secret really is having that caramel ready. It freezes perfectly and having it made ahead of time really does make the recipe easy peasy!

  • These look so good! Perfect little sweet treats after dinner. Love the idea of adding the almond butter to give it some richness and cut the sweetness of the dates.

    Really great recipe. So creative! Looking forward to trying them.

    • Hi Allison!

      Thanks! πŸ™‚ I have made coconut oil chocolate before with just cocoa powder + coconut oil, but its pretty “oily” melts super quick and hard to hold it’s shape. I then tried adding in some chunks of pure dark chocolate to stabilize a bit, which definitely works, but the chocolate isn’t 100% clean – although very close! I knew I could do better… πŸ˜‰

      The almond butter really does work wonders here and is purer than the chocolate bar. I also find they’re less “slippery” and “melty”.

      Thx for the comments! Hope you enjoy.

  • These look amazing! I was wondering if honey could be substituted for the maple syrup?
    Can’t wait to make these! πŸ™‚

  • Christal, I have signed up to follow your blog and Facebook page and used to get emails about your posts all the time. However, I haven’t gotten one since the end of January. Is there something I need to do to keep receiving them?

    • They may be going to your junk folder? Otherwise there is a subscribe option in the left hand sidebar on the blog, just enter your email in that! πŸ™‚

  • From the looks of these, Brook really is brilliant! I’ll be trying these out for Valentine’s Day! Thanks for allowing Brook to guest post on your site.

    • Totally! πŸ™‚

      I have a secret… I’ve used the same chocolate recipe around Christmas to make Mint Macaroons (they were amazing!)

      I added a few drops of peppermint extract, chopped 1/2 cup pecans into fine pieces, and poured the chocolate into mini cupcake liners! I would be interested to see if you could do it with orange… mmmm!