‘Tis the season for sticky, caramel-covered apples.
However, if making your own caramel apples sounds a bit messy and complicated, perhaps you’d prefer making a quick caramel dip instead. This particular caramel dip is raw and naturally-sweetened, made with fiber-rich Medjool dates. A definite upgrade from traditional recipes calling for butter, sugar and corn syrup!
With a hint of sea salt, this dip pairs perfectly with freshly sliced apples or pears, and would also make an excellent topping drizzled over your favorite Fall baked goods.
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Salted Raw Caramel Dip
makes about 1 cup
Inspired by this recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup soft Medjool dates, pitted
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, or more to taste
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup almond milk, plus extra for desired texture
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
optional: 1 cup soaked cashews or almonds
Directions:
If you’re using a standard blender or food processor, I recommend soaking the dates in filtered water for 2 to 3 hours, until soft. If you own a powerful blender, like the Vitamix, there’s no need to soak–> it will pulverize the dates easily!
Combine all of the ingredients in the blender, and blend until smooth and creamy, adding extra almond milk if necessary to facilitate blending.
Adjust flavors to taste, and chill before serving.
Note: For an extra-creamy caramel dip, add 1 cup of soaked cashews or almonds to the mix before blending. Omitting the nuts makes this recipe fruit-based and easier to digest, but the nuts do create a more authentic, creamy caramel texture.
Serve with sliced fruit, or thin with extra water to drizzle over baked goods.
- 1 cup soft Medjool dates, pitted
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup almond milk, plus extra for desired texture
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
- optional: 1 cup soaked cashews or almonds
- If you’re using a standard blender or food processor, begin by soaking the dates in filtered water for 2 to 3 hours, until soft. If you own a powerful blender, like the Vitamix, there’s no need to soak–> it will pulverize the dates easily!
- Combine all of the ingredients in the blender, and blend until smooth and creamy, adding extra almond milk, if necessary, to facilitate blending.
- Adjust flavors to taste, and chill before serving.
- Serve with sliced fruit, or thin with extra water to drizzle over baked goods. Will keep chilled in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Hope you enjoy!
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Reader Feedback: Do you look forward to caramel apples, or caramel dip? I’ve always been a little nervous about biting into caramel-dipped apples myself, thanks to that sticky coating– I’m scared I’ll break a tooth! Luckily, caramel dip suits me just fine.
dates are the best!!! love raw caramel!
I’ve never tried raw caramel. This looks way better then the super sugar stuff though!
This looks amazing! Definitely making with my gluten/dairy/sugar intolerant little sister this weekend to make her feel better about all of her friends getting Halloween treats and her getting stuck with suckers. Toughest life for a nine-year-old I’ve ever heard of.
I love your site, lady.
I feel like I would eat this entire thing in one serving it looks so delicious
Is it hard to scrape it all out of the vitamix around the blade, like is it sticky?
Nah, it’s not any harder than scraping out something like homemade cashew butter… I actually used my finger to (carefully) scrape out the very last drops!
This looks incredible! I can’t wait to make it.
This looks delicious! I love salted caramel everything. Glad I found you on Pinterest
oh my goodness! i just made this; it was amazing. I didn’t have any almond milk on hand at all so I just used water and it was excellent. I’m sure the milk would improve upon the flavor, but as it stands it’s still out of this world good. So excited to have this in the fridge for the next few days.
That sure looks sinful, in a good way of course!
now I know what I will be using the dates I got in my pantry for.
I made the raw almond butter yesterday… oh, my!! those were the longest 20 min of my life… I finally added a bit of the peanut oil that had separated from my raw peanut butter to get to the almond butter state. I think I will roast the almonds next time!!
I just made this. You are an answer to my prayers! I have been asking God for recipes and a way that I can give my kids better food that they will eat and enjoy!!
they are now drinking green smoothies everyday for over 3 weeks now. And I made this and it was a success!!
Loved it! now I am passing the recipe to my mom who has a sweet tooth!
thank you thank you
PS I added the raw almond butter that I had just made a couple of days ago to this. Yumm-O
I made this tonight and it was great! I added a little cinnamon…yum!
[...] This caramel sauce is adapted from Detoxinista. [...]
I love caramel apples! I’ve been craving them so bad this fall and I’ve been looking everywhere for healthier version that tastes good! I can’t wait to try this!
I tried it and it’s amazing! My husband said he liked it better than regular caramel apples! thank you for the awesome recipe!
This is brilliant! I was thinking about how I could have a candied apple this fall, because I love apples so much. This is perfect. Thank you!
I made this last night. Soooooo good. Especially with Granny Smiths.
Love this! I’ve made the sucanat version of caramel dip before but this sounds even better. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us.
OMG! Just made this “healthy caramel” with my daughter. It is SO good!
just made it with soaked cashews. extra delicious!
[...] This caramel sauce is adapted from Detoxinista. [...]
This is just awesome… one of my new favourites!! I am eating it right now. Fantastical.
Behold, the power of the date!
I just tried making this and was bummed as itoesn’t look as much like caramel like it does in your picture. I used a food processor and cashews. I soaked the cashews and dates for a couple hours too. Could I be doing something wrong? It tastes great though, I feel like it was better right away than after chilling.
I agree with you, Abbra. I made this tonight, and while it tastes okay, it doesn’t look or taste like caramel at all. I followed the instructions precisely. I’ll eat it, but I won’t make it again.
Love it!! It tastes just like caramel!!! Looking forward to trying other recipes on ur website! Thank you!!
This looks delicious but… I don’t care for the flavour of dates. Does this taste like dates?
It does not taste like dates. It tastes like caramel (which really shocked me) but LOVE it!! I’m thinking about adding this to the cheesecake recipe she has (which is delicious, too)..
Thank you so much! I’m very excited to make this now!