Salted Caramel Maca Cups

Hey guys! After much anticipation I am very excited to share this delicious recipe with you! These mouth-watering salted caramel maca cups are one of my favourite raw treats to make and devour. Of course, they are super decadent so about 1/2 to 1 of these bad boys is enough to satisfy my after dinner sweet tooth.

But before I share the recipe, let’s chat a bit about it. Firstly, the inspiration behind this actually came from my childhood. My best friend since about grade 2 had a family owned cafe, and Steve, her Dad made the most scrumptious mini ‘maca cups’ which look just like miniature versions of mine but with a biscuit crumb, traditional caramel filling & milk chocolate. It was always such a treat when Sof brought some of Steves treats round! This recipe was also inspired by my recent trip to a Macadamia Farm with Aus Macadamias. I got to learn about the Australian Macadamia industry, the farming and processing and sample lots of delicious macadamia recipes. I went home with 2 huge bags of macadamias which brought me to developing this recipe here.

So when I was invited to do a live cooking demonstration in Brisbane for the Regional Flavours Festival, hero’ing LOCAL, SEASONAL produce, I knew I wanted to cook something featuring macadamia nuts and sweet treats always go down a hit! (by the way you can catch me this Saturday 20th of July at 10:45am - main stage, South Bank, Brisbane, followed by a book signing).

Now for those that can’t make it this Saturday, you can get this delicious recipe right here!

So as always, I have ‘health-ified’ a traditional caramel treat by using only medjool dates, a oat/macadamia/coconut base and vegan dark chocolate on top. I have also added in some miso paste to the caramel to give it that salty sweetness and finished with some extra sea salt flakes because well, salted caramel is so damn delicious and salt flakes look SO pretty.

Salted Caramel Maca Cups

makes 9

Ingredients:

Base

3/4 cup roasted macadamias 

1 cup desiccated coconut 

1 cup rolled oats

5 medjool dates, pitted

1 tbsp melted coconut oil

Filling

10 large medjool dates, pitted

1 tsp miso paste

2 tbsp macadamia butter

1/2 cup water

~30 whole roasted macadamias

Top

100g dark melting chocolate (vegan)

1 tbsp sea salt flakes

How to make:

1. Start by making the base. Add to a food processor the macadamias, coconut, oats, dates, and coconut oil. Process until mix forms a sticky fine mixture.

2. Press the mixture into the base of 9 muffin moulds, forming up the edges to create a bowl or cup. Place in freezer to set while you make filling.

3. Add all of the filling ingredients to the processor/blender and blend until smooth and thick. Spoon mixture evenly into center of each base cup, smooth out and then press 3 whole macadamias into each cup. Return to freezer.

4. Place a pot of water over high heat and bring to the boil. Place a bowl over the top of the pot (covering the pot) and add the chocolate, stirring as it melts. (tip: if chocolate is too thick, try adding 1-2 tsp of coconut oil to bowl).

5. Remove the tray from the freezer and drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of each cup, using up all of the chocolate.

6. Sprinkle with the sea salt flakes and return to freezer to set overnight.

7. Remove from tray using a small sharp knife. Slide the knife down one side until it reaches the bottom and then gently wedge it out. The cup should just pop out with ease.

8. Transfer to a container and store in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Well my lovelies, I hope you enjoy this recipe!

If your in the Brisbane area, please come by my cooking demo and support me :) It’s always my favourite meeting some of you outside of the internet! xxx

Elsa