Chocolate Coated Nut Butter Stuffed Dates

Just read that blog post title. WHAT a title. When I saw this recipe pop up in my Twitter feed from Laura over at Wholeheartedly Healthy, I was like YEP - that’s for me. No hesitation. Click. Read. Make. Eat. Done. Amazing.

Loaded with nut butter and covered in 85% dark chocolate, these are a perfect sweet treat for over the festive period (or anytime of year in fact). They are a little less virtuous than the raw chocolate recipe I posted last week, but still, more nutritionally dense than a handful of Celebrations or Milk Tray (although these are great at Christmas too).

Laura uses peanut butter in her recipe, however, as the ol’ peanut and my body don’t mix very well (damn allergy kid tendencies), I used MyProtein smooth almond butter instead.

All I can think to describe these as, are like chewy natural caramels with a smooth chocolate shell. Laura’s trick, and one that I followed, was to freeze the dates stuffed with almond butter first before dipping in chocolate. This makes the chocolate extra crunchy, so you get loads of different textures going on. I’ve been storing mine in the freezer so they’re like toffees but having nearly broken a tooth last night on one, into the fridge it is! 

So, fancy giving these a whirl?

Wholeheartedly Healthy’s Chocolate Covered Nut Butter Stuffed Dates with Sea Salt 

Makes 8

What you’ll need:

• 8 Medjool Dates
• 1/4 cup nut butter (I used MyProtein’s Smooth Almond Butter)
• 150g good quality dark chocolate
• Himalayan pink sea salt

1. Pit the dates and then spoon nut butter into each one. Place into tupperware and pop into the freezer overnight.

2. Prepare a tray with non stick paper and melt your dark chocolate.

3. Remove dates from freezer and coat well with the melted chocolate

4. Place on paper to set and sprinkle with a tiny amount of sea salt immediately.

5. Leave to harden and then place in air tight container in the freezer or fridge.

These really are divine. So easy to make and a great treat for Christmas time. They're also excellent exercise fuel, so dig into one of these an hour or so before a winter run, cycle or bootcamp session.

I actually had quite a lot of left over melted chocolate when I made these, so coated some regular dates in the remaining chocolate and popped them in the freezer to harden.

For Laura’s full method and more gorgeous snaps of her creations, along with loads of great recipes and healthy living tips, head on over to her site.