
Dates + apples + peanuts + almonds + cacao + oats + rice + coconut.
Talk about an impressive list of ingredients for a cookie!
I intended to title these “no-bake choco peanut puddles,” but while scanning my list of ingredients I realized something—how close to nature these cookies really are :] Fruits, nuts, grains, legumes… but not processed, refined, enriched, fortified or sweetened like everything in our grocery stores seems to be.
So you can truly feel good about eating these cookies—they’re full of natural and whole foods, which are naturally better for your health!
Besides all that wholesome nutrition, these guys are good. In every single way. They’re rich with a chocolatey peanut butter flavor, they stay soft straight from the freezer and thaw extremely fast. Know what that means?! Yep. Ice cream sandwich perfection. A little spoonful of vanilla bean cream in between two of these guys and you’ve got yourself one divine, richly satisfying dessert. Let it thaw a minute and the cookie and cream meld seamlessly into one another.
Vegans rejoice. Make them gluten free if you wish by using gluten free oats. And even the biggest sweet teeth on the planet [me] can indulge completely guilt-free. No refined sugar, no artificial sugar. Just fruits of the earth. And love.
No-bake choco peanut puddles, adapted from here
½ c pitted Medjool dates, firmly packed (about 6-7)
½ c hot water
1 T coconut oil
2 T unsweetened applesauce
1/3 c natural peanut or almond butter
2 t vanilla
¼ c + 1 T raw cacao powder
¼ t sea salt
¼ c almond meal
¼ c peanut flour
1 c oats (processed in a blender a bit)
½ c puffed rice cereal (processed in a blender a bit)
**edited 8/29/12: I took out 1/4cup earth balance / applesauce from my original recipe and added 1/4 cup more oats. This makes the dough less runny and easier to work with. You could even get away with adding more oats/puffed rice if you’d like a stiffer dough.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the pitted dates in a blender or food processor. Add hot water, coconut oil and applesauce and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Blend or process the mixture until it is nice and creamy. You may have to push or stir the mixture down a couple of times, but make sure the dates are as broken down as possible.
Transfer the date mixture to a medium sized bowl. Use a small spatula to scoop out the mixture, as you’ll want to make sure you get every bit of it. Add the nut butter and vanilla; stir until well blended. Stir in the cacao powder, salt, almond meal and peanut flour. Add the processed oats and puffed rice and stir until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet and freeze 30 minutes or until set.
Since the dough is rather loose and gooey, I recommend keeping the cookies in the freezer until you eat them–they’ll thaw in about 60 seconds!
I you want to make ice cream sandwiches: Roll the dough out to ¼ inch thickness between parchment paper and plastic wrap. Cut into circles (I used a jar), freeze on parchment paper, assemble sandwiches and freeze in tupperware or plastic wrap til you’re ready for one yummy treat. *Note: the dough thaws quickly, so when cutting out and assembling sandwiches work fast!