A great “back-up” dessert to have in the fridge, which tastes incredibly indulgent but is made with such great and healthy ingredients that you shouldn’t even feel like you’ve just had dessert. You only need a couple of pantry ingredients and it shouldn’t take more than 10min. It ticks all the different diet requirement boxes too, except for any nut allergies. If you’re using store bought chocolate, aim for at least 70%, but I usually make these while simultaneously making a batch of my vegan dark chocolate, and in that case your dates will be completely refined-sugar free. Almond butter and almonds are my preferred nuts to use here, but you could sub them for any other nut or peanut butter combination too.

INGREDIENTS:

Makes 6 Dates

• 6 Medjool Dates
• 6 tsp almond butter
• 12 dry roasted whole almonds
• 2 tsp cacao nibs
• 1 tsp coconut flakes
• 40 g dark chocolate or my vegan dark chocolate – melted

METHOD:

1. Gently cut into each date, so it opens up like a book, while still remaining intact on one long side. Remove the pits and stretch the date a little bit, so you get a larger inner surface (photo below).
2. Put a tea spoon of almond butter into each date and press 2 whole almonds into it. Sprinkle a pinch of cacao nibs onto the almond butter as well, and gently press them in, so they become submerged in almond butter.
3. Press the sides and top of the opening of each date together slightly, so it closes up a bit – don’t worry if there is some filling visible from the top.
4. Using a small spoon, drizzle a spoon of melted dark chocolate over each date. If you want them super chocolatey, you can also dip each date into the chocolate (in this case, I suggest to fill the dates with the almond butter, almonds and nibs, gently pressing them together and chilling in the freezer for 15min – that way it will be way less messy as the chocolate will harden as soon as you dip them.
5. Store the dates in the fridge, they have a super long expiry date, so a great thing to have on hand for a healthy treat.