Salted Caramel Carob Cream Crunch, why I love carob..... local, cost effective and safe for kids or big kids like me :)
Okay hold on a second... you might be saying you don't like carob....
but it's okay you can easily substitute with cacao!
Those carob haters out there and chocolate lovers maybe wondering....
...why didn't you just use chocolate instead for this recipe?
Well I am a proud Carob freak these days! Why tho when you can just have chocolate?
It's a no brainer really, when you look at this way...
its local, carob trees grows everywhere in Spain. (saving on my carbon foot print)
its a quarter of the price compared to cacao (whoop whoop saving loads $$)
its not addictive and you won't get withdraw symptoms and cravings like you do with cacao (less adrenal fatigue)
its a much better alternative for kids or big kids like me compared to cacao (less irritable children)
it's a lot sweeter than chocolate so you don't need to add extra sugar like you do with cacao. (reduce sugar addiction + save $!)
And Finally it tastes incredible, well at least i think so :) (Able to Eat more :))
So I'm a bit late posting this because I made it for my birthday last week, I had visions of making a fancy cake, but I was lacking in some essential utensils and ingredients, not to mention time!
Trust me this recipe is Super Quick!!!
I looked at quite a few raw recipes online to get inspiration and then set to work on my own adaptation to suit what was already lying around in my cupboard and my budget because let's face it a lot of gluten free raw desert recipes are quite costly when they use ingredients like medjool dates and nuts such as pecans or cashews.
Saving $$ Facts...
So this recipes uses dates but i'm using ones that cost 7 euro a kilo and not the medjool ones that cost around 14 -18 euro a kilo.
I am also using sunflower seeds to substitute for other nuts I don't have. Which of course are much cheaper also.
So the total cost for this recipe is around 3/4 euros and it would of easily been more than double that using more expensive ingredients.
The ingredients filled 18x18 cm dish which would of given 12 6x6cm pieces in an ideal world
but I cut them quite unevenly and ate quite a lot of them before the actual photo shoot took place :) :) :)
Ingredients
100g Almonds
40g sunflower seeds
170g dates ( I removed the pit myself, you could buy pitted)
30g carob
2tbsp coconut oil
Carob cream topping:
5/6 frozen bananas
1 tbsp carob
Carob dark caramel cream topping:
1 to 2 avocados (or you can use more bananas if avocados are expensive)
pinch of sea / volcanic salt
date / coconut / maple syrup you decide which and how much for your taste
1 tbsp coconut butter
1 to 2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp carob
Method:
Crunch:
If your dates are hard you might want to pre-soak, some of mine were hard but I couldn't be bothered with the pre-soaking what I did was just grind them up first with a handful of the nuts until the dates had broken down enough then added the remainder of the nuts, carob and coconut oil.
Add mixture to pan buy evenly sprinkle all over then pressing down with the back of a table spoon to compact it.
Clean / wipe down your blender to remove traces of nuts
Topping:
Blend the banana or avocado first before adding the extra ingredients, make one topping after the other pour in to pan and swirl the two toppings.2
Set + Serve
Freeze for a few hours and thaw until topping the softness of ice cream.
What exactly is caramel and are these bites truly caramel?
To be honest this is something I never considered until now and seeing as I haven't eaten anything with caramel in it for a long time, but somehow these seemed caramely to me, but I guess that's all it is: sweetness.
It's not technically a caramel sauce, but it definitely felt like a caramel cream to me.
And seeing as caramel is just and oil/butter, sugar and vanilla it seems weird to that you can buy 'natural flavoring' for caramel. Personally I don't think these are suitable for people on raw / natural health food diet. Because even though they are supposedly natural, they are actually being produced in a lab somewhere and classified under an E-number.
Neither am I a big fan of using coconut cream because they mostly come in tin cans and with added guar gum which is a food additive and can cause digestive problems as it builds up in your system. This is why I prefer to make my cream out of bananas, which have natural sweetness, less fatty and much cheaper for me.
This my entry in to the one and only #veganwednesday held by the fabulous lady @heart-to-heart who is about to give away 100SBD to a lucky contestant for another challenge to find out more, you should check her out!
local carob tree in the wild
✌️Join the food revolution now✊
Ohhh yum, these look absolutely gorgeous!!! I love your recipe and added it to my 5 favourites of the week here ♥ https://steemit.com/food/@isshappy/iss-happy-s-5-favorite-vegan-steemit-recipes-of-the-week-7
First of all, that is a gorgeous looking piece. Also I did not know guar gum could cause problems. I am thinking now that every time I make something with coconut milk in a can I do get a stomach ache sometimes. I wonder if that is it. But I love coconut milk.
Also I think it is comical that you first off mentioned not liking carob because my dad the health nut wouldn't let me eat chocolate when I was growing up. Everything was carob. And I loved it at the time but now I have no desire for carob. It's cacao for me. But I do think it is a great substitute for children especially. I should give it another try actually.
Thanks for sharing this amazing treat.
It's possible to find coconut without guar gum but majority have it, it's a thickening agent and I swear I read somewhere it's also like a sugar,. I mean one's I buy with it taste artifical sweet than ones without. I'm very skeptical about it altho u will find article that talk about the benefits of it. Like Dr axe page but it does mention digestive issues as a side effect. To me thickening agent doesn't sound so great in the body!lol about love hate carob! I just come across alot of ppl who seen to hate it, I can imagine over doing it would get slightly sickly lol
Thank you for the information. I realize I shop for the least expensive most of the time. I will check the ingredients next time.
yum I love carob, will so be giving this recipe a go, I'm down south Spain so super happy that most of the ingredients are easy and cheap to get xx
Best thing about Spain really such great food and South is the best for that
What a great recipe! That looks so super delicious and I love carob :)
I've never used carob in a recipe before. I'll have to try this!
U must it's so tasty and has a fruitness too
I love the way you present your creation. It looks amazing! and at the end: Happy Birthday Sunshine☀️
🎈🎉🎆🎊
👍👍👍😋
That looks amazing! Made me salivate just looking at the pictures lol....you really outdid yourself on this one. May have to make this for Mr. Bird, he would love it!
Oh wow I really hope he likes it as much as me
🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤 Drool faces hehe!
happy belated birthday... this cake looks delishhhh
🎉🎈🎊🎆Woooo thanx
oh what a treat! And that is so great that you share the health facts about the ingredients and also try to keep it cheap! My favourite cheap and quick sweet treat at the moment is cookie dough made of legumes, or nicecream!!
That looks delicious! I would gladly eat one (or two...or three) slices of that over a traditional birthday cake. Especially with such care for healthy ingredients, it is ok to indulge in a few extra pieces. ;)
Am I glad u think so... Actually it was so good I actually made it again like it was my bday all over again :) . I ate quite a lot on my down day yesterday 😉
You're allowed to celebrate a birthday multiple times in my opinion. ;)