Coconut Butter and Coconut Date Cookie Bites

Last week I knew I had several meetings out of the building and would be running around like crazy, so I wanted to be prepared, food-wise. I bought some Lara bars that were coconut cream pie flavor. It sounded too good to be true. It turned out to be absolutely delicious.So I started thinking about how I could make something similar. I googled and looked around. I knew the basic ingredients words dates and almonds and coconut and so I wanted to find something creative to do with dates and coconut.

I found this recipe And I was intrigued.

First I needed to make some coconut butter.

Luckily I almost always have some unsweetened finely shredded coconut from let's do organic. I added one cup of this dried coconut to my tiny little food processor. And started to process. It took a long time and the coconut went through several stages, just like it does as you're making a nut butter. It seems like nothing is going to happen to the coconut, but you just have to keep processing. In all it took about 10 minutes.

Add 1 cup of dry, finely shredded, unsweetened coconut to your food processor.

This is my tiny little food processor. It cost less than five dollars on a black Friday deal several years ago, and it has been a tremendous kitchen helper.

The first thing you'll notice with the coconut if it will start to look a little moist and little tiny clumps will form. Scrape down the sides, stir up the coconut and turn the processor back on.

Then the coconut butter will start to look wet but still not really sticking together to form anything that resembles a nut butter. Again, scrape down the sides, stir the coconut and turn the food processor back on.

Finally you have coconut butter. Transfer this to an airtight container maybe a half pint mason jar or a snack cup from Tupperware.

Now it's time to make the cookie bites.

I started with just the two ingredients that the original recipe had but I think my dates were drier then the one she used and I don't know that my coconut butter added enough moisture to keep things together. So I modified the recipe a bit and added a little coconut oil. My coconut oil was solid but by the time it processed and warmed up from spinning around in the food processor it was just enough moisture to hold it together.

Add about two thirds of a cup of dates to your food processor. These should be pitted unsweetened dates. Mine were very tough. It might be because I didn't buy the brand name kind! I once I realized the dates were to tough, I took them out of the food processor and cut them into smaller chunks using a knife and a cutting board. After I did this they processed very easily. Also add 2 tablespoons of your coconut butter, and a little under a teaspoon of coconut oil.

Process In your food processor until everything is uniformly chopped and mixed.

Next I added some 85% dark chocolate. You want to add this at the very end, and only process it a little bit so your chunks don't completely disappear. At a grocery store near me, called Aldi, I get this 85% dark chocolate and it is perfect because it comes in a large bar that is separated into five small chocolate bars inside. This is great for me because then I am able to portion the chocolate outs and not be tempted to eat an entire large bar! I added one small bar to my food processor.

Next dump the entire contents of your food processor out onto a working surface. I used the cutting mat from pampered chef, but you could also use a large piece of waxed paper or another silicone mat. Using a spoon you a small amount into your hand and roll it into a ball.

This batch made six cookie bites and I immediately ate one, maybe two. I folded the aluminum foil up to make a little pouch and stored these in the freezer

 

 

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