The other day I wanted date bark (for those who don’t know: it’s usually when you spread a layer of dates, smash them, add topping of your choice, and then spread meted chocolate on top🤤)…. expect I was also craving a pb & j sandwich!! So I decided to combine the two and create this lovely recipe with homemade (which is easier than you think!) berry jam. It comes together pretty quickly (other than the chilling time) and hits every craving! I love the tanginess from the berries cutting into the fatness/richness of the peanut butter and chocolate and the extra sea salt flakes really bringing out extra flavor bursts… oh my goodness, I’m drooling just writing about it!! So without further ado, go ahead, and enjoy the recipe and/or any variations of it, and let me know how you liked it!! 😘
Why You’ll Love This Recipe:
- No baking required – just a stove top (or not if using store-bought jam) and a fridge/freezer!
- Up to your likings – peanut butter is my FAVORITE food (condiment technically???) in this world, so I added a little more peanut butter to the recipe and took away a few ounces of berries so I was able to eat more of my favorite food😋
- Minimum ingredients – you should have most of these ingredients already in your pantry/fridge/freezer, making it an easy, start-right-away recipe!
Key Ingredient Breakdowns:
- Dates – medjool work best for this recipe because they’re more sticky than others, but I used deglet noir, and it still came out great!
- Honey – this acts as the sweetener in the jam because sometimes berries can be sour/tart! You can also use maple syrup in place.
- Lemon – just a few squeezes to lower the pH to allow the jam is get the desired consistency. It also aids in preservation (not that these are gonna last that long anyway LOL), oxidation of the fruit (preserving color), and balances the sweetness
- Chia seeds – helps thicken the jam and adds extra fiber. Cornstarch or arrowroot powder also work great!
- Peanut butter – obviously needed for a pb & j recipe. I like to use Costco’s organic, natural creamy one that just has peanuts and salt as the ingredients. You can also swap for other nut/seed butters depending on your taste/allergies, and then you can change the name of the dessert! 😉
- Chocolate – any chocolate of your choice for the topping! I used 100% cocoa because I’ve worked my way up to tolerating that percentage and it tastes soooo good to me now, and most other chocolates are now too sweet for me, oops. But you can use white, milk, maybe even some chocolate with freeze-dried berries (yum!)
- Coconut Oil – just to help the chocolate topping become more runny and smooth/glossy for easier spreading on top of the other layers! You can skip if you want less calories and just don’t like/have coconut oil 🙂
Other Date Bark Variations:
- 🥥🍫 Almond Joy – almond butter + shredded coconut + dark chocolate
- 🥜 Snickers – peanut butter + chopped peanuts + caramel drizzle
- 🍯 Tahini Sesame – tahini + toasted sesame + honey + dark chocolate
- 🌰 Trail Mix – almond butter + pistachios + raisins + dark chocolate
- 🍌 Banana Bread – sliced bananas + walnuts + cinnamon + pb + choc
- 🍰 Strawberry Shortcake – white chocolate + freeze-dried strawberries
- 🍊🍫Orange Chocolate – orange zest in dates + dark chocolate + almonds
- 🥥🍵 Coconut Matcha – matcha white chocolate + toasted coconut
- 🔥🍫 S’mores – mini marshmallows/fluff + chocolate + crushed graham
- 🍨 Salted Caramel – almond butter + caramel drizzle + flaky salt
- 🥥🍫 Dubai Chocolate – pistachio butter + chopped pistachios + shredded kataoifi or toasted coconut + dark chocolate
Song for this recipe:
- What more of a perfect song to this recipe than this? Also, throwback to 2015/2016🤘 That era had some of the best songs!
Verse:
Philippians 4:6 – “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
─ ·✶· ─
Bye pooks! <3
PB & J Date Bark
Chewy dates layered with peanut butter and fruity jam, then chilled into an easy naturally sweet PB&J-inspired bark that tastes like candy with wholesome ingredients.
Print
Pin
Rate
Ingredients
- 2 cups your choice of berries
- 12 pitted dates split in half or however many you need to fill bottom of loaf pan
- 2-3 tbs honey
- 1 tbs lemon
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbs chia seeds or cornstarch/arrowroot powder
- 1/2 cup runny peanut butter or any nut/seed butter
- 1/4 cup chocolate
- 1/2 tbs coconut oil
Instructions
- Heat up berries on the stovetop at medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Place parchment paper on the bottom of your loaf pan, and place your dates flat on the bottom next to each other.
- Place another layer of parchment on top and take a glass to press hard down on top of all of the dates.
- Peel away the top layer of parchment.
- Once your berries are able to be mashed, mash them, and add the honey, lemon, salt, and chia seeds.
- Mix and let simmer for a few minutes until clumpy/thicker.
- Take off the heat and let it chill for 10-15 mins.
- During this time, you can microwave the peanut butter in one bowl and the chocolate/coconut oil in another until they’re nice and liquidy.
- Once the jam has cooled down, pour it over the dates and spread evenly.
- Next, try your best to evenly spread the peanut/nut butter over the jam layer (hardest part)!
- Finally, pour over the chocolate topping, lift the pan to spread the chocolate everywhere, and of course, add some salt on top.
- Pop that into the freezer for 1+ hours, or until the jam and chocolate are fully set, and enjoy!!
Leave a Reply