These are not the everyday kind of cookies. No wheat flour, no egg, no butter and absolutely no sugar – and they still taste morish and delicious. Rustic, wholesome and mind it, with a crumbly texture, these cookies remind me more of a health bar, than a dessert.
These past few weeks have been insane. I have been cooking and baking like a crazy woman with one thing following the other. Goodies are baking in the oven even before the previous one is all consumed. This cookie at least can be called more on the healthy side, but I am afraid that more indulgence is coming up in this space.
However I have to admit that these were the ugliest cookies I have ever seen or rather made. I also had the most difficult time trying to make them look good in the photographs, until I gave up. You just have to trust me and take my word for it that these were good.
I spied the recipe in the Sprouts – Local Farmers Market free store magazine; what attracted me was the easy list of ingredients and how quick these could be made. What I did not think was it had no flour, no leavening and nothing much to hold the nut flour together other than the sticky dates. I added some chocolate which the recipe did not have and also some citrus zest along with spices, hoping it would appeal to the kids and the bitterness of the chocolate would break up the intense sweet of the dates.
Well, the girls did not much care for it. I think it would have worked better if I told them I made fruit and nut bars rather than cookies. The word “cookies” implies something completely different than this kind, to the kids. No sugar, no icing cookies do not fit well in that category in their books.
In spite of them being not so good looking, we loved them; more as a filling healthy bite than as cookie.
These little bites takes the natural sweet of the dates, so the more you add, the sweeter they are going to be. If you are using sweetened chocolate, you will need to adjust the number of dates.
Spiced Walnut Date and Chocolate Cookies
(Recipe adapted from Sprouts Farmers Market store magazine in print)
Ingredients: (yields 15 cookies)
- 1.5 cups walnut halves and pieces
- 15 dates, pitted and chopped
- 1 teaspoon citrus zest
- 1/4 cup bittersweet/semisweet chocolate chips (Use chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate bars/chunks**)
- 2 teaspoon grapeseed oil, or almond butter
- a pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon powdered clove
- 1 teaspoon vanilla/almond/orange extract
- raw sugar to sprinkle on the top (Optional)
**Note: Use the chocolate chips, as they do not melt as quickly as the bars/chunks chopped. The cookies are baked for a short while and as it is difficult to handle, and they would be messy if the chocolate melted easily. With the chocolate chips, it worked out pretty good and the broken chips stayed as it is in the cookies without making it gooey.
Preparation:Preheat oven to 350 F.
Place walnuts, dates and chocolate in a small food processor and process/process until they are coarsely ground. Add the rest of the ingredients in the food processor and process/pulse until the entire mix starts to form a ball.
Line a baking/cookie sheet with parchment paper (the parchment paper/liner is a must; you will have a difficult time removing the cookies if you do not use the paper/liner). Scoop out the mix, about 1 tablespoon each, gently roll into a ball with your hands (it will form approx. 15 cookies), and place each on the lined tray (sprinkle sugar if you want) and gently flatten them.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Cool completely in the baking/cookie sheet. It gets very difficult to get the cookies out while it is hot. Have patience and allow it to cool completely. After cooled, slowly peel out the parchment paper and handle the cookies with care.
Consume within 2 days.
Preparation Time: 10-12 minutesCooking Time: 8-10 minutes + cooling/resting time
Difficulty Level: Easy
Yields: 15 (1.5 inch diameter each) cookies
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These really are not the ugliest cookies around…clearly you haven’t seen some of the things that come out of my oven! I love how these are free of most everything that’s bad for you! They look delicious.
Oo.. SOma.. These are definitely not the ugliest.. but definitely in the healthy category !!
Those cookies are cute with their rustic looks! Not ugly at all.
I bet they taste great.
Cheers,
Rosa
Most of my ‘healthy’ cookies look like this! lol… As long as i can enjoy them without too much guilt I really don’t care how they look. Yours sound great…
The cookies sure look beautiful in the way you have photographed them!
Soma- these aren’t ugly at all. Quite the contrary! They look fabulous and I’m surprised your girls didn’t care for them. They have a stellar ingredient list!
Lovely! I adore cookies with some substance 🙂
I do not know how they came out of the oven. But you have made them look beautiful. Loved the recipe Soma. 🙂
these cookies look great.. i bet you dont even need to bake these!:) most of my cookies look like this.. coz i just dont have the energy to shape them:) the pictures look amazing..
They look beautiful to me Soma…. Fabulous pics as usual !!!
The cookies looks great.. and so are the photos 😀
delicious! I like cookies like this! And they have dates + chocolate! YES!
Looks amazing! The pics are tempting me to grab some off the screen!
We have a Sprouts that just opened near us last year and I keep forgetting it’s there! I need to make a trip back soon, I love their selection of healthy staples.
Bring on the indulgence! That’s what this time of the year is all about, right? Hehehe. Those “healthy bars” look delicious 🙂
Lovely recipe. The pics look tempting.
Thanks for visiting my blog. Your encouragement means a lot to me.
there’s something about the time of year that makes you want to bake cookies! and what better combination that cookies and milk before christmas 🙂 love the photographs!
Firstly I love the photos. The recipe is great, planning for this weekend to do something special for my inlaws coming over…have this in mind.
Cheers
think you have made a fine job of making them look delicious in the photos. Always an issue I find making brown food (meat etc) look tasty!
Ooh sounds so good Soma. J is crazed for dates and we always have majdool at home. Delish!
They look absolutely wonderful and gorgeous….
And they sound super delicious…
Yum….
Those look like a terrific snack. The addition of healthy nuts makes them just that wee bit less sinful 🙂
[…] & Walnut Spice Cookies with Chocolate (Recipe adapted eCurry; originally from Sprouts Farmers Market store magazine in […]
With these ingredients you could make some simple bon bons: mix the dates and walnuts in the blender, shape into small circles and dip in dark chocolate…so decadent.
Love love love the idea!! Thanks so much and I am def. going to make them during the holidays this year.
hello its the best