Chocolate Peanut Butter Date Bites
These chocolate peanut butter smashed date bites are one of those simple recipes that feels like a treat but is made from just a few everyday ingredients. Soft dates are flattened, topped with creamy nut butter and finished with dark chocolate for a chewy, chocolatey snack you can prepare ahead and keep in the fridge.
They’re naturally sweet from the dates, contain fibre and healthy fats, and using a good quality dark chocolate adds cocoa polyphenols too.
Makes 9
Ingredients
- 9 Medjool dates
- Around 9 tsp smooth nut butter, approximately 1 tsp per date
- 50g good quality dark chocolate
Method
- Line a tray or plate with baking paper.
- Slice each date lengthways and remove the stone.
- Open the dates out flat and place another sheet of baking paper over the top.
- Use the flat base of a jar to gently press each date into a thin, flattened bite.
- Spread approximately 1 teaspoon of smooth nut butter over each date.
- Melt the dark chocolate gently and spoon it over the top of each bite.
- Sprinkle of sea salt - optional.
- Refrigerate until the chocolate has set.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.
How to Choose the Best Dates
For this recipe, Medjool dates work particularly well because they are naturally soft, large and caramel-like.
Look for dates that feel plump and slightly sticky rather than very dry or hard. Softer dates are much easier to flatten and create that chewy texture underneath the chocolate.
If your dates have become slightly firm, you can leave them at room temperature for a while before preparing them.
How to Prepare a Date
Dates normally contain a long stone running through the centre.
Use a small knife to make a shallow slice lengthways through one side of the date. Gently open it with your fingers and remove the stone.
For this recipe, don't close the date again. Open it out as flat as possible before pressing it between baking paper with the base of a jar.
Choosing Your Nut Butter
A smooth nut butter is easiest to spread over the flattened dates.
Peanut butter gives these bites that classic chocolate-peanut combination, but almond, cashew or another nut butter would also work.
Look for a nut butter where nuts are the main ingredient, ideally without lots of added sugar or additional oils.
The nut butter also adds some protein, unsaturated fats and extra staying power compared with eating a sweet snack on its own.
Why Use Dark Chocolate?
I like using a good-quality dark chocolate here because the slightly bitter cocoa balances the sweetness of the dates.
Cocoa also naturally contains polyphenols, including flavanols. These plant compounds are one of the reasons cocoa and high cocoa dark chocolate are regularly studied in nutrition research.
Generally, a chocolate with a higher cocoa percentage will contain more cocoa solids and usually less added sugar than milk chocolate.
You don't necessarily need the darkest chocolate you can find, though. Choose one you genuinely enjoy eating this is still meant to be a treat.
Why These Smashed Date Bites Are a Great Snack
What I like most about this recipe is that it combines something sweet with ingredients that offer a little more nutritionally than a typical chocolate snack.
Dates provide fibre and naturally occurring carbohydrates, while nut butter contributes protein and unsaturated fats. Dark chocolate adds cocoa polyphenols as well as that rich chocolate flavour.
They're also made without added sugar in the date and nut butter base. Just check your chocolate and nut butter ingredients if avoiding added sugar is important to you, as different brands vary.
They're still an energy dense sweet snack, so I don't think they need to be marketed as a “guilt-free” food. They're simply a really tasty way of combining whole-food ingredients with chocolate.
A Good One to Prepare Ahead
This is exactly the type of recipe I like having prepared in the fridge.
When you want something sweet after dinner or during the afternoon, having something already made can make it easier to choose the snack you actually intended to eat rather than grabbing whatever highly processed option happens to be nearby.
Make all nine at once, let the chocolate set and keep them in an airtight container.
You can also freeze them for up to two months and take one or two out when you want them.
That prep ahead element is probably one of the strongest wellness angles for this recipe not perfection, just making the easier choice a little easier.
