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Salted Caramel Squares

These little gooey sweet and salty caramel squares have to be made to be believed. As a child (and to this day) caramel slices were one of my absolute favourite sweet treats, but obviously they’re full of not-so-good-things so I was thrilled to create this recipe. You still get all of the flavour and satisfaction as you would eating a regular caramel slice but with less of the not-so-good-things! The base of these is soft rather than a crunchy biscuit base and the bitter dark chocolate works like a dream with the sweetness from the dates and maple syrup.

INGREDIENTS:

For the base:
1 cup almonds
1 cup cashew nuts (soaked)
1 cup dates (soaked)
1 tbsp. maple syrup
Pinch of sea salt
 
For the caramel:
1 cup dates (soaked)
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. salted caramel flavour/extract (available in Tesco)
 
For the top layer:
100g dark chocolate (Green & Black’s is great)
 

METHOD:

1. Soak the cashew nuts in water over night, or if you are stuck for time put them in the microwave for 2-3 minutes in a bowl of boiling water. Soaking the nuts will soften them which makes them easy to blend into a spreadable consistency. 
2. Drain the nuts and blitz them in a food processor until smooth. This will take 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
3. Soak the dates in a similar way as the cashew nuts. Soaking them for 3-4 minutes in boiling water seems to soften them enough if you don’t have time to soak them overnight. Drain the dates and blitz in the food processor until a really smooth consistency forms that resembles caramel. 
4.Blitz the almonds until they look like smashed biscuit crumb. 
5.Stir the maple syrup into the dates mixture and then combine this with the cashew nuts. Gradually stir in the almonds and sea salt. 
6. Press this mixture into a lined tin and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set. 
7. Meanwhile, for the caramel, soak the dates and drain them. Blitz them to form caramel and add the maple syrup and salted caramel flavour.
8.Spread the caramel over the set base and return to the freezer for 1 hour. 
9.Remove from freezer after 1 hour and cut into squares. 
10.Melt the chocolate and drizzle it over the squares. Allow to set in the fridge. Store in the fridge. 
 
 

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