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Healthy date caramel sauce that’s made with all natural ingredients in just 5 minutes with no cooking required! This easy, healthier twist on traditional caramel is perfect for serving over your favorite fruit, drizzled over your favorite dessert, or as a healthy addition to these sweet potato pancakes!
Table of Contents
- Why You’ll Love Date Caramel Recipe.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }
- Health Benefits of Date Caramel
- How To Serve Date Caramel Sauce
- Ingredients:
- Variations and Substitutions
- How To Make Healthy Date Caramel Sauce:
- Rachel’s Tips Tor Best Results
- Make Ahead and Storage Tips
- Recipe FAQ’s
- More Recipes You’ll Love With This Caramel Sauce:
- 5-Minute Healthy Caramel Sauce Recipe
Why You’ll Love Date Caramel Recipe
Healthy caramel sauce is something I think we all need more of! It is both delicious and nutritious! I’m telling you, this is so good you will want to eat it by the spoonful! Here are a few more reasons this caramel sauce is amazing!
- Tastes Like Caramel: Dates naturally have a similar flavor profile to the deep, sweet taste of traditional caramel!
- Feels Like Caramel: With the addition of a few additional natural ingredients, the texture of the dates becomes smooth and luxurious just like classic caramel!
- More Nutritious: Dates, natural sweetener, and nut butter provide a wide range of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, protein, and fiber! I bet you won’t find that on the back of a grocery store caramel sauce jar!
- This healthy caramel recipe is naturally gluten free and can be made dairy-free and vegan!
Want to make more healthy dips? Then you are going to love this Easy Pumpkin Spice Dip, and this Sweet + Spicy Strawberry Salsa.
Health Benefits of Date Caramel
Imagine that golden, deliciously sweet flavor of caramel drizzled over everything! And then image that is actually providing some benefit for your body! That is exactly what homemade date caramel sauce can do!
Carmel sauce from the store is SO SO tasty but also unfortunately packed with refined sugar, corn syrup, and often Carrageenan and cheap refined oils. Darn it. (No wonder why I get a stomachache whenever I indulge in highly processed and manufactured caramel sauce.)
But in our clean caramel sauce recipe, you get to enjoy caramel that is preservative free, additive free, and has the benefits of healthy fats from the nut butter and coconut cream, fiber from the dates and nut butter, natural sugars that won’t spike blood sugar levels, and you even get a little bit of protein. On top of that, you get vitamin A, calcium, and potassium to name a few additional nutrients!
How To Serve Date Caramel Sauce
Healthy caramel date sauce is perfect for dipping, drizzling, or adding to so many different foods and recipes! Here are a few of our favorites!
- dip apples, pineapple slices, or any fruit you love!
- drizzle over fruit salad
- add to overnight oat pudding parfaits
- pump up this pumpkin spice yogurt dip
- top your yogurt
- make your own caramel popcorn
- use with organic pretzels
- spoon onto pancakes or waffles
- drizzle on Ezekiel chocolate cream cheese toast
- add it to coffee
- use as icing on brownies like our Black Bean Brownies or our Double-Dark Chocolate Brownies
- top these delicious healthy cheesecake cups
- drizzled over these healthy frozen Greek yogurt bars
Now can you see why we love it so much! Always keep a jar in your refrigerator!
Ingredients:
2 Tbsps per serving, makes about 36 servings.
- 2 cups soft and pitted Medjool dates (about 10 pieces)
- 1/2 cup almond or cashew butter
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup or raw honey
- 1 cup of coconut cream (not coconut milk)
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of very hot water or milk of choice to reach your desired consistency
Variations and Substitutions
Dairy-Free Version: This dairy-free caramel sauce by swapping cow’s milk with any milk of your choice. Some great non-dairy milk choices are almond, oat, cashew, or soy milk.
Make It Vegan: To make this vegan caramel sauce, use maple syrup or another vegan sweetener of your choice.
Salted Caramel Sauce: If you love salted caramel, it is super easy to turn this base caramel sauce recipe into salted caramel sauce by adding a pinch of pink salt to taste.
Chocolate Caramel Sauce: For you chocolate lovers out there, you could also turn this into chocolate caramel sauce by adding cacao or cocoa powder. Keep in mind you will need to add a bit more liquid to keep this saucy!
How To Make Healthy Date Caramel Sauce:
*If your dates are hard, soak them in boiling water for 20 minutes. Rinse and drain all liquid off.
Place all the ingredients in your high-speed blender.
Process from low to high speed until smooth.
You’ll likely need to stop and scrape the sides of your bowl a couple of times.
Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
Enjoy!
❤️Rachel
Rachel’s Tips Tor Best Results
- If your dates are hard, soak them in boiling water for 20 minutes. Rinse and drain all liquid off.
- To get the sauce super smooth, I recommend using a high power blender.
- Sweetness Factor is a very personal taste preference, so you may want to use more or less pure maple syrup or raw honey, depending on YOUR family’s specific taste preferences.
Looking for more healthy dips and sauces? Then try this Jalapeno Avocado Hummus or this Mexican Bean Dip.
Make Ahead and Storage Tips
Definitely make this ahead of time and store it in your freezer. Then you’ll be able to pull it out and use it anytime you like! I like to store it in an air tight container.
Refrigerate for up to 1 week and freeze for up to 3 months.
Separation may occur over time, so just give it a good stir before serving.
Recipe FAQ’s
Is there a healthier version of caramel?
Absolutely! This date caramel is definitely a healthier version of caramel since it is made with all natural, whole food ingredients and provides more nutrients than traditional caramel made from caramelized sugar and milk.
Is date caramel healthier than regular caramel?
Yes, this clean date caramel recipe uses whole food ingredients to provide natural sweetness and texture similar to regular caramel, also providing more nutrients than regular caramel.
Can I make date caramel sauce nut free?
Yes, I would suggest using a seed butter instead of nut butter to make this caramels sauce nut free.
Did you try this Healthy Date Caramel Sauce recipe? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
🩷Rachel
More Recipes You’ll Love With This Caramel Sauce:
5-Minute Healthy Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups soft and pitted Medjool dates, (about 10 dates)
- 1/2 cup almond butter, (or cashew butter)
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup , (or raw honey)
- 1 cup of coconut cream, (not coconut milk)
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of very hot water or milk of choice to reach your desired consistency
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in your high-speed blender.
- Process from low to high speed until smooth. (You'll likely need to stop and scrape the sides of your bowl a couple of times.)
- Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate for up to 1 week.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
