Check ingredients Preheat oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Add flax seeds and water to a small bowl. Whisk using a fork to combine. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Add dates, melted coconut oil and applesauce to the bowl of a food processor and blend on high until you get a smooth puree.
Add the flax egg and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
In a medium sized bowl, add flour, cacao powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix to combine.
Transfer the flour mixture into the food processor and pulse until combined or until you no longer see any of the flour mixture. Be careful not to overmix.
Transfer the mixture into the bowl in which you mixed the flour. Add the chocolate shavings and chopped dark chocolate. Fold in using a rubber spatula.
Scoop out about 2 tablespoons of dough to make each cookie. Place onto your baking sheet.
Moisten your hands with water and gently flatten the cookies.
Garnish with a few extra chunks of dark chocolate if desired.
Bake for 8 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool on the pan for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with fleur de sel and transfer on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe adapted from Chelsea’s Date-Sweetened Whole Wheat Double Chocolate Cookies.
My favorite dates are mazafati dates because of their incredible softness, but this recipe will also work with any other soft dates such as medjool. If your dates are hard, remove their pit, measure them and add them to a bowl. Cover with boiling water and let sit for 10 minutes or until they are soft. Drain the dates (keep that sweetened water! It is great to use in oats!) and use in the recipe.
Here is the easiest way I have found to make chocolate shavings with a chocolate bar.
Can you use any other flour for this recipe? Probably, but I have only tested this recipe with whole wheat flour so I would not be able to tell you for sure which flour or flour blend would work best.
There is a lot of chocolate in this recipe, can I reduce the amount? Yes, of course! If you want to reduce the amount of chocolate, just omit the shaved chocolate. Your cookies might not taste as decadent and fudgy, but they will still be delicious!
I don’t have a food processor, can I still make these cookies? I think so. I would just recommend blending your dates, coconut oil and applesauce together in a blender or using an immersion blender. Then transferring that mixture into a bowl and adding the rest of the ingredients in the order mentioned in the recipe to that bowl.
Last week, I stumbled upon Chelsea’s blog at www.bakedgreens.com where I found her recipe for Date-Sweetened Whole Wheat Double Chocolate Cookies. I had been looking for a date sweetened cookie recipe for the longest time and I was so glad to have found hers. Unfortunately, it was not vegan, so I had to modify it a little to fit my diet.
Simply by swapping out the egg with a flax egg and playing around a little with some of the ingredients, I found myself with a delicious, decadent chocolate cookie that I instantly knew would be one for the books.
These cookies really remind me of bear paws I used to eat as a child. They are so pillowy and soft and literally melt in your mouth. You see, bear paws are one of those snacks that marked my childhood. When I would open my lunch box to discover that iconic orange packaging, my taste buds would sing! And then… when I would find out that it was the chocolate chip or the banana bread ones, I was in culinary HEAVEN!
Of course, as you can tell, my food preferences have changed rather radically. Now that I think back of these bear paws, I have to admit their texture is still appealing, but their ingredient list is rather not. The second ingredient is sugar/glucose-fructose. Each bear paw also contains canola oil, liquid whole egg, modified palm oil, fancy molasses, modified wheat starch, whey powder, vegetable glycerin, and natural flavour. Kind of scary to think that I had these at least once a week growing up…
BUT, you know what is awesome? Our body has the incredible ability to heal and to renew itself, which means that by eating a more complete plant based whole foods diet, the impact these types of highly processed, sugary foods potentially had on my body can be completely gone by now!
Anyhow, the recipe for these cookies I am about to share contains only natural ingredients such as:
✔︎ Whole wheat flour
✔︎ Dates
✔︎ Coconut oil
✔︎ Unsweetened applesauce
✔︎ Cacao powder
… and dark chocolate (I used 85% dark chocolate)
On that note guys, this recipe will definitely become a staple for Sam and I. I personally love finding and recreating recipes that require ingredients that I always have on hand and on top of that that are healthy, especially when they contain little refined sugars and oils.
I really hope you guys try this recipe and if you do, I would love it if you tagged me on Instagram (@muriellebanackissa).
Have a lovely day!
