Wanting a simple vegan and gluten-free dessert to serve this holiday season? Looking for foods that connect and fuel us, even when times are tough?
This 4-ingredient recipe is a favorite in my house. I find that stuffed dates are a decadent and delicious dessert—and one that many people can eat and build relations around, across faith traditions. It’s a plant-based dish that can comfort and support, making possible liberatory work and public outcries needed now and into the future.
(I know that’s a lot for food to accomplish, but food literally nourishes us. It gives life to the emotional, embodied, relational, critical, and spiritual work of everyday living for justice.)
So, with the goal of sharing yummy vegan food for connecting and fueling, I share this decadent dessert:
To prepare these stuffed dates, simply mix together peanut butter, coconut cream, and melted chocolate chips. Then stuff the creamy mixture into fresh dates. Serve this vegan and gluten-free dessert right away, or refrigerate and eat over several days.
Dates stuffed with a creamy mixture of chocolate, peanut butter, and coconut cream.
4 Ingredients for Vegan Stuffed Dates:
- 12 fresh dates (I prefer to buy fresh Medjool dates and to pit them.)
- 1/3 cup of coconut cream (To be clear, use only the solidified cream at the top of a can of full-fat coconut milk.)
- 1/3 cup of peanut butter (I prefer fresh ground peanut butter of roasted and unsalted peanuts.)
- 2 tablespoons of vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer Enjoy Life. You can also replace the chocolate chips with a full tablespoon of raw cacao to avoid refined sugar: the dessert is a bit less sweet, but still very chocolatey and decadent.)
Note: Ingredients can easily be adjusted to the amount you’d like to make. Combine equal amounts of coconut cream and peanut butter with a smaller (approximately 1/3 amount of chocolate chips).
Ingredients for vegan stuffed dates (moving clockwise): Medjool dates, semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter, and coconut cream.
Directions:
- Remove pits from the dates, and place the pitted dates on a tray.
- Stir together the coconut cream and peanut butter.
- Melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips using a double boiler or microwave. I typically use the microwave since this is such a small amount of chocolate chips to melt.
- Add the melted chocolate into the creamy coconut and peanut butter mixture, and stir until fully blended. The mixture should be creamy, but not runny. If it’s too loose, add a bit more peanut butter.
- Fill the dates with the creamy mixture, stuffing them fully.
- Enjoy!
Dates with pits removed and ready to be stuffed with the creamy mixture of coconut cream, peanut butter, and melted chocolate. The mixture is dark brown from the chocolate—close to the color of the dates.
This image shows the gooey goodness of vegan and gluten-free stuffed dates with the creamy, chocolaty mixture spilling over the top and with small bits of peanuts visible.
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This post is written by Beth Godbee for Heart-Head-Hands.com. For more vegan desserts with peanut butter, check out “Sweet Peanut-Butter Spread for Snacks, Parties, Lunches, and More” and “Banana, Chocolate, and Peanut-Butter Mash: Changing My Relationship with Sugar and Rethinking Self-Care.”
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