Salted caramel for the win!
Also: oats for the win.
And also more specifically: oats with pretzels and dates and pecans and caramel and chocolate and sea salt as a snack and dessert — um, yes. Going for the epic major win here.
If you’ve been to my house, our studio, or a workshop here recently, there is a 100% chance that I offered you a peanut butter pretzel energy bite or raw salted chocolate snack bar because I can’t stop poppin’ these easy, versatile, nutritious little snacks. I hope you’ve enjoyed this phase of overwhelming love for the snack zone, because friends? Today we level up.
About 3 days ago, I officially graduated from the basic snack obsession to a more sweet, more luscious, more snack-meets-dessert type situation that includes a similarly delicious oat and date and pretzel base, a layer of chocolate with sea salt on top, and a little golden nugget of soft salted caramel tucked away inside. GOLDEN NUGGET. SOFT SALTED CARAMEL. NO-BAKE. I cannot. Buuut I really, really can. Things are getting serious and delicious.
These little snacky-dessert winners are called No-Bake Salted Caramel Cups, and they remind me of peanut butter cups but a more interesting, sophisticated and homemade version.
The thing I love most about No-Bake Salted Caramel Cups is that there is literally never a bad time for them. I would consider this one of THE MOST universally appealing foods at any time of day. Whatever time of day you’re thinking of right now – it’s gonna work. You really just can’t go wrong.
For example.
Morning treat (hi Saturday morning looking at u), mid-morning snack treat, post-lunch sweet bite, pre OR post workout celebration, afternoon pick-me-up (just try it with a nice creamy, strong latte. I mean, UGH can you even right now?), or probably most likely in our case –> the answer to the question: what will we eat as a bed-time-ish snack while we sit on the couch and watch movies?
Answer: oat and pretzel cups with a little soft salted caramel kiss and a chocolate top hat, with a light, little touch of sea salt fairy dust for good measure.
The thing I love second most about No-Bake Salted Caramel Cups is that they are one of those you-already-have-everything-on-hand recipes, which is my ultimate goal in life and therefore one of the things I strive for with the recipes I share on POY. Our blog tagline should be: recipes that you will actually make in real life. That’s my goal.
And with our beloved oats being right at the core of this recipe, this recipe stays true to that goal.
You can mix and match and make it work with whatever you have on hand — as long as you’ve got the oats as the solid base ingredient (which you obviously do). Being that oats are nutritious, affordable, versatile, and always in the pantry, the oats are the bring-it-all-together mother of this little caramel cups ingredient family.
Annnnd go.
Mwah! Happy Friday, lovely people of the food internet.
I don’t tell you often enough how much I like you. Now have a salted caramel cup.
Print
No-Bake Salted Caramel Cups
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 10–12 cups 1x
Description
No-Bake Salted Caramel Cups! Oat crust with a soft salted caramel center, topped with chocolate and sea salt. Perfect for a quick snack or dessert!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Quaker Rolled Oats
- 1 1/2 cups pecan halves
- 1/2 cup pretzels
- 8 whole medjool dates, pitted
- 2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- a pinch of coarse sea salt
- 1 cup thick caramel – could be homemade caramel or store-bought caramel pieces melted into a sauce
- 2 cups chocolate chips, melted
- sea salt, optional, for topping
Instructions
- CRUST: Pulse the oats, pecans, and pretzels in a food processor until broken down into small pieces. Add the dates, coconut oil, and sea salt and pulse until a soft dough forms. Refrigerate for about 15-20 minutes to help the mixture become easier to work with.
- CARAMEL: Meanwhile, prepare the caramel and melt the chocolate.
- ASSEMBLY: When the crust mixture is firm enough, press into a muffin tin, leaving a well in the center of each. Add a tablespoon or two of caramel into each cup and top with chocolate. Sprinkle with sea salt if you want. Refrigerate or freeze until hardened. Remove from muffin tins and serve (give them a little time if they’ve been frozen). Yummmmmy.
Notes
The crust for these can also be made with the Peanut Butter Pretzel Energy Bites base!
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: caramel cups, no bake caramel cups, oatmeal caramel cups
Thank you to our friends at Quaker Oats for sponsoring this post!
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our easy chocolate desserts page. Check it out!
I’ve made these twice and both times everyone raved about them – so so yummy.
I did struggle with mastering the caramel part, though. How do you prepare it? I don’t see any tips how-to. Thanks and thanks for the amazing treat!
Definitely use a mini muffin pan! And, I over-pulsed and ended up with mush so I would pulse your dates first and then the rest. Still yummy!
So one serve is 50% of recommended daily fat intake and about 90% of daily sugar intake (as 10% of total kj consumed). I’m sure they’re delicious but these should come with a health warning!!
Hi there, Damien! A lot of the fat in these is healthy fat coming from the nuts. You could reduce the amount of refined sugar too if you’d prefer. We haven’t tested it out yet, but you could try using a bit less caramel or chocolate chips if you’d like.
When i printed the recipe it printed with 1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats and 1 1/2 cups pecan halves; however, when I click thed the 1X scale the recipe changed to 5 1/2 cups Rolled Oats and 5 1/2 cups pecan halves. Which is the correct measurement?
Thanks for making us aware of the issue! It should be 1 1/2 cups.
Hi! Wow, the flavors here were amazing!! I , however, ran into a situation where the crust was great out of the freezer, but after having set out for guests on the counter for 15, it essentially melted/dropped and never firmed up again, even after back in fridge. Any tips? I feel like if I reduce oil/increase oats or dates perhaps? Thanks so much – I LOVE your site and have had much success with your creative recipes!!
I think the previous comments may have answered my question! The only coconut oil I had on hand was “100% pure LouAna Liquid Coconut Oil” – ingredients are “fractionated coconut oil, coconut oil” – so it never hardens! This is why my beautiful cups were so wet!! Need oil that is hardened unless melted.
Sharing for benefit of others perhaps – thanks again!!
These look yummy but I’m not a fan of dates or figs. Any substitute suggestions? Maybe some honey and PB stirred together to replace the stickiness of the dates???
Thanks for this special post.
Hi! Pecans are very expensive in the UK. What would you use instead? Thanks
Walnuts would be a good sub!
Thanks Jenna!
Love It!
Don’t do what I did! I used the mammoth cupcake cups (making only 6 or so) . This caused there to be too thick of a layer of chocolate on the tops, rendering them basically inedible (the tops). Otherwise totally freaking amazing!!!!!!!!!! Next time I will make them in ahem, “normal” size… Thank you Lindsay!
No bake is the way to go in the summer! These look awesome!!
I’ve made these twice now and am having trouble with the caramel sauce. The first time I used store-bought caramels and melted them. The second time I followed your link to the homemade salted caramel sauce and ended up with similar results. My caramel is nice and runny when I add it but then it hardens into a rock. What did I do wrong? Did I over-cook it? I made the crust following the recipe and put it back in the fridge in the muffin tin while I made the caramel sauce. I let the sauce cool a bit and it thickened before adding it to the crust. I melted chocolate chips and added that on top. Then I put the whole thing back in the fridge for a few minutes to allow the chocolate to harden. I pulled them out of the fridge to try them but the caramel is rock hard in the middle of the cup. I could seriously lose a tooth. This is my first time making caramel sauce so I’m guessing that I did something wrong. Any troubleshooting tips? They taste great otherwise….good enough that I’ve made them twice even with the caramel issue.
I had this same issue! Help! How do you keep the caramel soft???
Halo..i’d like to try this for my kids. But, coconut oil and dates are not available at our place. Any suģgestion for a substitute.?
Hmmm you could try another dried, sweet fruit in place of the dates. For the coconut oil, it’s tough to find a sub – it needs to be an oil that hardens at room temperature. One option might be ghee (clarified butter) but it won’t have quite the same taste.
Amazing!!
Always a hit
Hi Lindsay! I have made these twice now, and they are absolutely amazing! I changed it up a bit, using patty cases and making them in a mini-cupcake pan. I’ve posted about it on my blog: http://www.thebaconharvest.com/salted-caramel-cups/
Thank you for this delicious recipe!
Glad you enjoyed it, Meggan!
I made these tonight. I made the caramel from your linked recipe and my 3 children and I all agreed that they were too salty for our taste with the extra salt in the crust. I froze them and we ate them straight from the freezer but they have a bit of a greasy mouth feel from the coconut oil. I am glad I tried them but probably won’t make them again.
Sorry to hear that, Clare. Thanks for the feedback!
Can I sub quick oats for the rolled oats? Thanks!
Yep, should be fine!
Are these made in a mini muffin pan?
Hi Gracie! These were made in a standard size muffin pan.
What can I use in place of the dates and coconut oil?
Hi Tom! Those are really what holds the crust together, but you could give the Peanut Butter Pretzel Energy Bites crust listed in the notes!
What size muffin tin did you use? I made these but think I ground the dough too finely… So they’re a bit too dense! Worth a second shot though!!😄
Just a standard size muffin pan!
Ahhh, I bet date caramel would be amazing in this recipe! Love that these are no bake as well!
Very yummy
These look so delicious! Definitely pinning this recipe for later!
Hope you enjoy it!
Sorry to be the Grammar Police, but there is no such verb as “to addict”, in the English Language! What you mean to say is, your caramel apple crisp bars are addictive. Having said that, your recipes do look rather delicious.