This post is brought to you by Morton Salt. The truffles are dark-chocolate dipped, then topped with a crunch of coarse sea salt, one of the pro tips shared at the Morton Next Door Chef event I attended last fall. Read on for the tasty details about the recipe and the event too. Getting a homemade salted caramel sauce to a consistency that’s thick enough to enrobe in melted chocolate to create a caramel-filled truffle, yet soft enough to still melt and ooze when you bite into it, is a tricky endeavor that I’d prefer to leave to a French pastry chef. Hence, for this Salted Caramel Truffle recipe, we are skipping the actual caramel entirely. Stay with me here. Instead of meticulously heating butter, sugar, and heavy cream in a saucepan until the temperature, color, and bubbles were just so, I piled dates and cashews in a food processor and blended them until they were smooth, creamy, and positively luscious. That’s it! Dates have a natural caramel-like sweetness, and cashews are buttery. Combine the two with vanilla, coconut sugar, and salt, and the resemblance to salted caramel is complete.
About These Salted Caramel Truffles
The vegan date cashew “caramel” is terrific on its own, but it’s absolutely outstanding with a drizzle (or dunk) of dark chocolate. You can opt for a light chocolate drizzle and eat them like energy bites for a quick, healthy snack or go full-on chocolate cover and transform them into a decadent (but still healthy and vegan!) dessert. (Check out this Energy Balls recipe if you want more snack options! Or, if you’re in search of more dessert or chocolate bliss, these No Bake Cookie Dough Protein Balls are a hit, or any of these 50 Healthy Desserts!) The final ingredient that makes these caramel truffles truly shine is a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. It balances the sweetness from the chocolate and dates, gives the caramel truffles a tiny crunch, and is without a doubt the reason you won’t be able to stop eating them.
If you’ve made any of the recipes from my site, you might notice that I always call for kosher salt or sea salt instead of regular table salt. A friend who is a great cook once had me taste them side by side, and I was shocked by the difference. Kosher salt is easy to control and perfectly seasons food, while sea salt adds the perfect “pop” and contrasting texture to dishes like these Salted Caramels. Table salt doesn’t offer either of these qualities. The kosher salt is my go-to for all basic cooking and baking, and I use sea salt when I want to truly see and taste the salt. I’m not sure how Morton Salt discovered my love for kosher and sea salt, salted caramels, and travel, but the word must have spread. Last fall, the brand invited me to attend a commercial taping for its Next Door Chef series in Nashville, Tennessee. I was only able to tell you a tiny bit about it then, but now that the video is finished, I can give you the rest of the juicy details!
When I received the initial invite to fly to Nashville for 24 hours to eat a beautiful gourmet dinner prepared by a local chef, all while being recorded for video, I honestly thought it must have been a mistake. Two weeks later, I was eating one of the most wonderful meals of my life in a gorgeous setting while trying to casually ignore the cameras that kept buzzing in and out of sight. Act natural, I told myself. And don’t chew with your mouth open.
The concept of Next Door Chef is that a local celebrity chef comes into a community member’s home, teaches him or her how elevate his or her cooking through the proper use of kosher and sea salt, then transforms his or her home into a restaurant for a night. When I found out that the Nashville chef would be Karl Worley, I actually yelped with excitement. I had met Chef Karl on a prior trip to Nashville and was immediately impressed by his cooking, personal warmth, and humility. He serves the best biscuits you will ever eat in your life at his restaurant Biscuit Love (I still think about them), and that night in Nashville, he crafted a beautiful, spring-focused menu for an entire crowd of hungry diners.
The meal featured seven epic courses, and each used kosher salt and/or sea salt to make the flavors shine. I truly loved every bite, from the chicken country captain to the pimento cheese to the salted beet salad, but if I could only eat one course again, it would be the biscuit strawberry shortcake. The dish combined Chef Karl’s life-altering biscuits, homemade whipped cream, and strawberries that had been soaked in a sugar-salt brine. I’d never added a pinch of salt to strawberries before, but after experiencing how it intensified their flavor, I will never top my shortcake any other way. Nor will I top my Salted Caramel Truffles any other way! Give this recipe a sprinkle and see if you agree. You can check out the Nashville episode of Chef Next Door here and snag the recipes from our meal too. Chef Next Door New Orleans is coming this summer, and if the menu is half as delicious as our spring-inspired Nashville feast, I know the attendees are in for a true treat.
How to Store and Freeze These Truffles
To Store. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or at room temperature for 1 week. To Freeze. Freeze for up to 3 months in an airtight freezer-safe storage container. Set out at room temperature for a few minutes prior to serving.
More Delicious Truffles Recipes
Paleo Pistachio Truffles Dark Chocolate Red Wine Truffles
I am sharing this post in partnership with Morton Salt. As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands and companies that make it possible for me to continue creating quality content for you!
