These Vegan Chocolate Salted Caramel Tarts are dairy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free and can be made oil-free. They consist of a raw crust, made of nuts and dates, some homemade caramel sauce and a creamy chocolate layer.
The caramel sauce is a healthier version of regular caramel and is quick and easy to make since it consists of only 2-ingredients.
It's also no-bake recipe which means that no oven is required. Equipment wise you'll only need a (fairly strong) food processor to prepare this recipe.
Ingredients & Substitution Notes
- Buckwheat Groats: These add some crunchiness to the crust. Make sure to blend them in your food processor first before adding any other ingredients.
- Medjool Dates: This recipe calls for Medjool dates which are my absolute favorite. However, they are not always easy to find and can also be quite expensive. Alternatively, you could also simply use “normal” small ones. Make sure however, that they are soft enough. If they aren’t, soak them in hot water for about 10 minutes beforehand. Otherwise, they might give your food processor a very hard time. Also you might need about double the amount since they are much smaller.
- Peanut butter: For the caramel to work, use smooth, unsweetened peanut butter without any additives like oil. If you prefer using sweetened peanut butter you might need less maple syrup.
- Cacao Powder: I use non-sweetened cacao powder for this recipe.
- Maple Syrup: If you don't care about this recipe not being vegan you could also use honey instead.
- Coconut cream: Make sure to put your coconut milk in the fridge the evening/day before you want to make this recipe. Coconut milk, when put in the fridge, separates into two layers: a solid cream at the top and liquid water at the bottom. For this recipe to work, it is really important that you only use the white, solid part of the coconut milk. It only remains at the top of the tin if the milk is cool enough. Secondly, it is really important that your coconut milk is a full-fat milk and has a high content of coconut extract, otherwise there won’t be a lot of cream on top. I prefer using a coconut milk that contains 90% coconut extract, whereas I also tried using a 55% version and it didn’t work.
- Chocolate: In order to keep this cake vegan I used vegan dark chocolate. However, you could use any chocolate of your choice.
Step by step photo instructions
For making this recipe, you'll need a (fairly strong) food processor. Since this is not a traditional pie but rather includes a lot of wholefood ingredients, a strong food processor is needed to ensure that ingredients like buckwheat groats for instance can be ground.
STEP 1: Crust. To prepare the crust, put your buckwheat grouts into your food processor and blend until most of them are crushed.
Then add all the other crust ingredients blend until a sticky mass forms. This might take a couple of minutes- don't forget to scrape down the sides every now and then.
Once the crust is ready, line a cake tin (mine was about 25cm) with parchment paper or grease it with oil. Then press the crust into the tin using your fingers or a spoon/ spatula. Don't forget to also include the sides of the tin.
STEP 2: Caramel. Now it's time to prepare your caramel layer. Simply whisk together maple syrup and peanut butter and keep stirring until the mass is well combined and the texture resembles that of caramel.
STEP 3: Chocolate ganache. Heat chocolate and coconut cream in a sauce pan, stirring with a whisk until fully melted and combined. Pour chocolate layer onto caramel layer and place it in the fridge to set for 4+ hours or overnight.
Vegan Chocolate Salted Caramel Tarts
Ingredients
Crust
- ½ cup (100g) buckwheat groats
- ½ cup (70g) almonds
- ½ cup (70g) cashews
- 6 (90g) Medjool dates or sub 1 cup “normal/small” dates (~20)
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted *optional
Caramel Filling
- ¼ cup (60g) smooth peanut butter 100% peanuts
- ¼ cup (70ml) maple syrup
- tiny pinch of salt
Chocolate Ganache
- ¾ cup (160g) coconut cream *see notes
- 100g (3.5oz) vegan dark chocolate
Instructions
Crust
- Add buckwheat groats to your food processor and blend until coarsley ground.
- Then add almonds, cashews, dates and blend again until a crumbly mass forms (this might take a couple of minutes, until nuts have released their natural oils). Scrape down the sides every 30 seconds.
- Add maple syrup (& coconut oil) and blend again.
- Line six tartlet tins with parchment paper (or grease with a little bit of oil) and press the crust into the tin using your fingers (or a spoon).
Caramel Layer
- In a small bowl, mix together peanut butter, maple syrup & salt with a whisk. Stir until a smooth sauce forms.
- Spoon about 1,5 tablespoon of caramel into each of the tins.
Chocolate Ganache
- Heat a saucepan over low heat and add dark chocolate and coconut cream, while constantly stirring with a whisk.
- Once fully dissolved pour your chocolate cream mix over the caramel layer and place it in the fridge to set (about 4hours or overnight).
Notes
- Coconut cream: It is really important that your coconut milk has a is a full-fat milk and has a high content (of coconut extract, otherwise there won’t be a lot of cream on top. I prefer using a coconut milk that contains 90% coconut extract, whereas I also tried using a 55% version and it didn’t work. How many coconut milk tins you need, in order to get 1 cup of coconut cream also depends on the coconut content of your milk. If the content is high, one milk is definitely enough.
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