Date Turtles With Tahini Maple And Chocolate Drizzle
Joke of the day: What do you call a turtle chef? A slow cooker. ;) That’s funny because this recipe is the exact opposite of slow. You’ll be shell-shocked at how easy this recipe is. All you need are some dates, nuts, tahini, chocolate and a few other ingredients to pull this on-the-go bike snack together.
My inspiration for these turtles first started when I wanted an easy, tasty and functional bike snack for my 100-mile gravel race in Fruita. The answer: Dates! I could eat dates on their own and be just fine, but I wanted to add a fun, yet nutritional enhancement to them.
Then this Instagram post from Rancho Melduco Date Farm popped up in my feed. Ding ding ding!
To ease up on the chocolate from the Rancho Melduco recipe, I decided to go with a chocolate drizzle instead. And then to top it off, I added a creamy, sweet tahini drizzle that gets you in a little protein as well.
What I like about dates is probably best explained through Lentine Alexis’ Date Bomb recipe post. See below:
Dates are easily digestible in any weather and an exceptional source of carbohydrates, minerals, and nutrients.
Moist dates are assimilated easily AND they won’t freeze (unlike a dry-ass energy bar!)
Sturdy little dates are an easy carbohydrate answer for anyone that has a tricky time with grains.
Adding nut butter or coconut butter packs this snack with protein, a little fat and plenty of staying power for spending all day on the bike
These have all the sweetness and flavor of the classic turtle with less refined sugar and all the nutritional benefits of whole dates. Take 20 minutes to make up a batch and stock up a Stasher full for an all-day excursion on the bike.
Cheers!
Ingredients
Date Turtles
12 Medjool Dates
1 cup nuts or 5-7 nuts per date (Cashews, pecans or peanuts)
*My next evolution on these will be using pretzels with or without the nuts!
Tahini Maple Drizzle
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
*Save leftover drizzle for pancakes, waffles, fruits and other sweets!
Chocolate drizzle
1/4-1/2 tsp coconut butter, melted
1/4-1/2 tsp coconut oil, melted
2-3 ounces dark chocolate, 70% finely chopped
Directions
Flatten dates with your hand or the bottom of a drinking glass. Press 5-7 nuts into each date. Put in the freezer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, add all the Tahini Maple Drizzle ingredients to a small bowl and whisk until smooth. Just before the 30 minutes is up, add the chocolate drizzle ingredients to a small bowl and melt in 15-second increments until smooth.
Use a spoon or fork to drizzle the tahini and/or chocolate onto each turtle. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt on top and return to the freezer and chill until firm, about 30 minutes. Enjoy!
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