Caramel or Almond Butter Candy Cups
Uh wha??? Candy!?! Yep, that’s right. Just in time to make a little treat for your sweetie for valentines day. I was so thrilled how these turned out and how “official candy looking” they look! The best part is that they are pretty easy to make.
****UPDATE****
Oh my o my! Life changing- thats all… These things are amazing with homemade almond butter and you will flip your lid. I kept telling Jude, “just wait babe, when you try these, you’re gonna flip your lid.” And he was all “what lid mom, what are you talking about?” Haha 🙂
So step number one is I believe you’re gonna need a vitamix to make this almond butter. You might could do it in the food processor, but I’m not sure how it will turn out. If you do try it that way please comment below so others will know.
Candy Cups
Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- 1/4 C coconut oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 C enjoy life chocolate chips
Directions
- Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan and add remaining ingredients. Stir until chocolate chips are melted and set aside.
Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 C cashews (soaked for at least an hour)
- 4 pitted dates (soaked for 1 hour-save the soaking water)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup or sorghum
- 1 tsp vanilla
Directions
- Drain the water from the cashews and rinse them.
- Add them to the blender along with the dates and approximately 3 tablespoons of the soaking water, you can add more later if needed.
- Then add the maple syrup and vanilla.
- Blend in vitamix on high until it becomes smooth and creamy.
- Place into a glass container.
OR
Roasted Almond Butter
Ingredients
- 2 C roasted almonds*
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
- 1 Tbsp honey
Directions
- Place one cup of almonds in the vitamix and then add the coconut oil and honey.
- Place the remaining almonds in the blender and turn it on high while mashing down with the tamper for about 3 minutes or until the mixture becomes creamy.*To roast your almonds turn your oven to 350 and spread the almonds onto a cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/4 tsp salt and let cool.
*I follow Elana’s method for roasting my almonds
To make the candy-
Directions
- Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners. You can use a regular size muffin pan but you would get as many candies…ya duh, I know, I just thought I would tell ya anyway. Plus I feel like the mini’s make just the right amount of goodness :-0
- Using a small spoon, pour just enough chocolate sauce to cover the bottom of the paper liner. Once you’ve filled them all, place the pan in the freezer until the chocolate hardens (15-30 min). Now, carefully with a small spoon put a dollop of caramel or almond butter (it should be fairly thick) in the center of the chocolate round, paying attention not to touch the sauce to the sides.
- Then pour the remaining chocolate over the top of the caramel or almond butter so it is completely covered.
- Place them back into the freezer again until the harden. You can then remove the liners and keep them stored in the fridge or freezer.
P.S. Don’t tell anyone you made these. Just put them into a disguised container and gobble them all up when no one is looking ha!
www.eatinginnately.com
can’t wait to try!!!!!!
Mine didn’t turn out nearly as pretty, but these are so yummy!!! I used the cashews and doubled the recipe 🙂 they are the perfect amount of sweet.
I’m glad they worked out for you Carey! Next you should try the almond butter filling, oh my! They are super addictive!
I have made Almond Butter in food processor with success. However, one would have to have a stronger watts like 1,000. A year ago I attempted to make sunflower butter in the food processor and it burned the plastic bowl (500 watts motor). I guess if one had a 500 watts motor they could turn it off to cool down before running it some more. Here’s the link on how to make the sunflower butter and to get an idea on how long to run the processor for almonds:
http://prudentbaby.com/2011/08/entertaining-food/how-to-make-sunbutter-the-best-sunflower-butter-recipe-2/
On using food processor, pros is you get all the nut butter out versus Vita-mix due to blade being in the way. Cons is it takes longer than 3 minutes and requires patience to let the natural oils in the almonds to come out. Sometimes I don’t have to use coconut oil because it becomes creamy from its own oil.
On second thought on making almond butter in food processor, the key is to not put the honey in too soon or the natural oil won’t come out. The last two times I made it, I was more patience and didn’t need to use coconut oil as it was really creamy. Thanks Mandy for these tasty treats!
Thanks for the tip Cindy!
*pitted* dates. Call me a mama brain or maybe it’s because I don’t use dates too often in my baking (I’m trying to sub more often, now, tho!), but I totally threw the soaked dates into the Vitamix WITHOUT pitting them! Ugh. I wondered why my Vitamix was having such a fit with the cashews and acting like it was chopping up rocks! WOOPS!!!