{Note from Jessica: Today’s post is shared by my sweet, longtime friend, Emily Sunwell-Vidaurri, author of the Recipes to Nourish website. Emily’s blog focuses on gluten-free real food and holistic health. She’s a real foodie, passionate about nourishing home cooking and advocate of “green” living. Her passion and mission are to make healthy and natural living as easy and enjoyable as possible. Stop by her site, Recipes to Nourish, for her latest recipes and natural living tips.}

Sea Salted Chocolate Raspberry Caramels are delicious little bites of bliss. These healthier caramels are super easy to make and the perfect treat to share with someone you love. 

It’s no surprise that National Chocolate Month is celebrated in February. Chocolate has become a common must-have for Valentine’s Day, so it seems fitting that the whole month of February celebrates chocolate.

Most of us who love chocolate don’t need an excuse to enjoy some chocolate, but it’s fun to know that it’s a celebrated food nonetheless.

I’m pretty crazy for chocolate. I love to enjoy it however I can. Sometimes that means nourishing hot chocolate and other times that means chocolate raspberry fudge or a chocolate orange smoothie. I simply cannot refuse homemade, healthier, chocolate goodies.

There’s something just so special about chocolate.

Chocolate is known for making people feel HAPPY. It’s also known to help boost the mood, make you feel better and it even releases endorphins into the brain. With all those feel-good hormones, it’s no wonder that chocolate produces so much pleasure for people.

So why not enjoy some chocolate caramels with a touch of sweet raspberries?!

Chocolate and raspberries are meant to be!

Chocolate is lovely on its own, but it’s also so delicious paired with other flavors. There are many beautiful flavor combos like chocolate orange, chocolate mint, chocolate spice, and even chocolate with a little bit of heat!

Chocolate is also delicious paired with berries and is most commonly known for being paired with strawberries. But in my opinion, chocolate is extra special with raspberries.

Sweet, creamy, silky, chocolaty goodness paired with bittersweet, slightly tart, juicy raspberries is pure bliss.

Add these delicious flavors to a chewy caramel and you have a match made in heaven.

These delectable little bites of sea-salted chocolate raspberry caramels are made with a special ingredient. Medjool dates! You don’t need to any candy thermometer or tons of stirring to make caramel for these babies. All you need is some delicious sweet dates.

When dates are cold, and especially with they’re paired with chocolate, they end up tasting very similar to caramel. The secret is making sure they stay cold, this gives them that authentic chewy caramel texture.

These Medjool dates are rolled into mini bites, drenched in homemade chocolate, then dusted with raspberries and a few pieces of flaked sea salt.

Sea Salted Chocolate Raspberry Caramels are incredibly special and decadent. Make sure to share some with loved ones, but make sure you keep a few just for you.

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Sea Salted Chocolate Raspberry Caramels :: Gluten-Free, Grain-Free, Dairy-Free Option

Yield: 30 pieces

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Sea Salted ChocolateRaspberry Caramels are delicious little bites of bliss. These healthier caramels are super easy to make and the perfect treat to share with someone you love. 

Print

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup freeze-dried raspberries, blended into a powder
• 15 Medjool dates
• 1/4 cup grass-fed butter, ghee, or cacao butter
• 2 tablespoons cocoa or cacao powder
• 2 tablespoons raw honey or pure maple syrup
• Pinch Celtic sea salt
• Flaked sea salt

Instructions

1. Add freeze-dried raspberries to a high-powered blender or food processor. Pulse until raspberries are a fine powder. Set aside.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place in the freezer to chill.
3. In a small saucepan, gently heat the healthy fat of choice, cocoa/cacao powder, honey/maple syrup and sea salt over low heat, stirring occasionally until fully melted and glossy. Place chocolate in the freezer for a few minutes (2-3 minutes) to thicken just a bit while you prep the dates.
4. Using a paring knife, cut dates in half and discard the pits. Roll each date half into a little ball curling the date in towards the stickier inside. They will not be perfectly round, they will look rustic. The warmth of your hands will help form them into a roundish ball. Set aside.
5. Remove the chocolate from the freezer, give it a stir. Add all of the rolled dates to the chocolate and use a spoon to coat all of them in chocolate.
6. Remove the chilled, lined baking sheet from the freezer and place chocolate coated dates on the parchment paper.
7. Place baking sheet back into the freezer and allow to set up for 3-4 minutes, the chocolate should still look slightly glossy.
8. Remove from freezer. Using a fine-mesh strainer, dust a fine mist of the powdered raspberries over each chocolate date. Repeat a second time until all of the raspberry powder is gone.
9. Add a pinch of flaked sea salt to the top of each chocolate date.
10. Return to the freezer. Freeze for at least 1 hour before eating for a truer caramel texture ... if you can wait.

Notes

Caramels keep well in the freezer and taste delicious right out of the freezer. If they've been in the freezer for several hours or days, you can let the caramels sit at room temperature for 1-2 minutes before eating, but I prefer them right out of the freezer.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 30 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 64Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 5mgSodium: 36mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 1gSugar: 10gProtein: 0g

This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered from Nutritionix and we often find their calculations to be slightly inaccurate based on the whole food ingredients we use on this site. Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on many factors. We strive to keep the information as accurate as possible, but make no warranties regarding its accuracy. We encourage readers to make their own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.