I was driving home recently dreaming of this delicious date caramel I’d had at my friends house a couple of years ago! I didn’t have her recipe, so I came home and decided to have a play around. I wanted something with macadamias as they just lend themselves so perfectly to something so creamy and dreamy!
I also had the idea initially of making more of a sweet dip, but then my thoughts drifted to Maca powder and it’s wonderful caramel tones. Maca powder is a great source of vitamins, energy boosting properties, has benefits for the skin, helps to increase energy, and helps with womens & mens health & reproductive health. I love chucking it into foods when I can!
So here is the result! Icky, sticky, goopy, mouth- watering, finger -licking goodness! I can guarantee you won’t be able to resist going in for a second spoonful! I gave the recipe to my best friend Jessie of Desperate Healthwives who made it straight away and thought she’d died and gone to heaven! Ha! And I must admit she took the above photo! It’s just so beautiful I had to use it!
Apples are of course the classic combo with caramel however you can use whatever fruit you desire! Apples, pears, bananas, strawberries etc all work beautifully! You’ve all seen those caramel apples in the supermarket – sugar upon sugar! This is a little different, but we works so well and is such a wonderful alternative with only a little maple syrup to sweeten. You could reduce the maple or use honey or rice malt syrup. I tend not to be a big promoter of rice malt syrup as its so highly processed. I’ll talk more on sugars in another blog post.
It’s absolutely perfect just freshly made and dipped into! However, look at what happens after you’ve left it in the fridge for a little while! Gorgeous and firmer in texture it becomes more like a spread! There is something about this that I just love! It’s smooth and rich and you can use your chosen fruit as the perfect little implement to scrape up the perfect amount! So try both ways and see which you love you the most!
- 150g Raw Macadamias
- 2 - 3 Medjool Dates
- 60g (4 Tbsp) Coconut Oil
- 40g (2 Tbsp) Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 1 tsp Maca Powder
- 1/8 tsp Celtic Sea Salt
- Place the macadamias into the bowl of the Thermomix and mill 6 Sec/Speed 9.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and process for 10 Sec/Speed 4.
- Scrape down the sides again and process a further 30-40 Sec/Speed 6 or until a nice nut butter consistency forms.
- Add all the remaining ingredients and process 40 Sec/Speed 6-7.
- Serve with freshly chopped fruit such as apples, pears, strawberries, bananas etc.
- For a firmer texture, you can place it into the fridge for approx. 30 mins or until set firm.
- You can easily turn this into a Chocolate Version too by adding 2 Tbsp of Raw Cacao Powder in with all the other ingredients. Yum!