Craving something sweet and chocolatey without all the guilt?
My nut-free raw vegan chocolate cookies have got you covered.
With just five whole food ingredients, and free of the most common allergens, these cookies will meet your every need.
They’ll leave you feeling satisfied. They’ll free you from worry and guilt. And they’ll even do the dishes for you.
(OK. Maybe not that last one.)
These raw vegan chocolate cookies do take a little more effort than most of my “chuck it in the blender recipes”, but they’re SO worth it.
And I’m the queen of “low effort” cooking, so even when I say “more effort” they’re still pretty easy to make.
Sadly, they’re not suited to “instant gratification” because they need time to dehydrate (or freeze) after shaping.
Unless you eat the mix straight from the bowl that is.
And frankly, who would blame you if you did?
Sweet, chocolatey, allergen-free, unprocessed.
What are you waiting for?
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups shredded coconut , fine (180g)
- ¼ cup cacao powder (60ml or 20g)
- 1 tsp vanilla bean powder or 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1½ cups medjool dates (360g)
- 1 pinch salt
Method
- Put coconut, cacao powder, vanilla and salt into a food processor and pulse briefly to mix.
- Add the pitted dates and process until the dates are finely chopped and the mixture starts to clump.
- Press into cookie shapes using a cookie cutter or egg ring.
- Dehydrate at 40-45°C for 3 hours (or until firm on the outside).
- Flip over and dehydrate for another 3 hours, or until they reach the desired texture.
Preparation
- Before: -
- During: 20 mins
- After: 6 hours (dehydration or freezing)
- Need: Food processor, dehydrator (optional)
Nutrition Information
Tips
- I used dried, shredded, unsweetened coconut meat in these raw vegan chocolate cookies. Basically it’s just plain, fresh coconut meat that’s been shredded finely and dried. I don’t make it myself, but that’s how simple this ingredient really is.
- Make sure you get finely shredded coconut for using in this recipe. If you get coarsely shredded coconut, the text of the cookies will be a bit funny and they won’t hold together as well. That said, if all you have on hand is coarsely shredded coconut, just pulse it a bit longer in the food processor until it breaks down into smaller pieces, and voilà – finely shredded coconut.
- Cacao powder is just raw cocoa powder, so if you don’t have any, you can use cocoa powder instead. You probably won’t even notice the difference. Just make sure it’s the unsweetened variety so you don’t end up with overly sweet cookies.
- Vanilla bean powder is made by grinding up dried whole vanilla beans into a powder. You can make your own or you can buy it from your local health food shop. I use this in all my recipes these days, instead of vanilla extract, but if you don’t have any, just use a couple of teaspoons of vanilla extract instead, or scrape out a vanilla bean or two into the mix.
- Medjool dates are my favourite dates for raw vegan dishes. They’re big and soft and sticky, and they have a wonderful caramelly taste. They add sweetness and depth to recipes, and break up easily in the food processor or blender. They’re the closest thing to a wholefood sweetener that I’ve found.
- If you can’t get your hands on any medjool dates, you can use regular dates, but you’ll need to soak them in room temperature water for a couple of hours before you use them, to make sure they break up properly in the processor.
- I use pink Himalayan crystal salt in all of my cooking these days, because I love using good quality ingredients. It’s generally less processed than table salt and contains trace amounts of a bunch of minerals. Apparently it also tastes better too, but I don’t think I’m discerning enough to tell the difference. Any salt will work just fine.
- If you want to go salt-free, then just leave out the salt in this recipe. It’s not essential, but it does help to round out the sweetness of these raw vegan chocolate cookies. A little bit goes a long way, so be careful when adding it, and don’t overdo it.
- The mixture seems quite crumbly when you first get it out of the processor, but once you press it into shape, it will hold together well. If you’re still concerned, you could add a tablespoon of flax meal to the ingredients in the processor, but it shouldn’t be necessary.
- The point of dehydrating these raw vegan chocolate cookies is to help them firm up a little, and to create a slight crust on the outside, which makes them seem more like cookies.
Variations
You have a few options when it comes to finishing off these raw vegan chocolate cookies:
- Dehydrate: As described in the recipe, I like to dehydrate my cookies for a few hours on each side, to create a slightly crunchy crust with a soft chewy centre, but it’s not essential to do it this way.
- Freeze: You can also freeze these biscuits if you don’t have a dehydrator. Just shape them into cookies, and put them into the freezer for a few hours. They’ll also store really well in the freezer, so you can leave them in there until you want to eat one.
- Balls: You can also roll this cookie mixture into balls. Once you squish it together, it does hold its shape quite well, so this is definitely another great option. I don’t have the patience for making things into balls, but they’d make great finger food for a party, especially if you rolled them in a little extra shredded coconut.
- Cheesecake: You can also use this raw vegan chocolate cookie mixture as the base for raw cheesecakes, raw tarts and raw pies. Anywhere a chocolate base is suitable, really. Strawberry cheesecake with a nut-free chocolate base, anyone?
My inspiration
A little back we accidentally invented the most amazing raw vegan nut-free chocolate cheesecake recipe ever.
It all started with the filling, which is based on raw chocolate and coconut milk, and we realised that such an amazing nut-free chocolate filling needed a similarly amazing nut-free chocolate base to go with it.
So I created this recipe, using basically just coconut, dates and cacao powder, which worked a treat.
Fortunately, I also made too much for our new created vegan chocolate cheesecake, so I experimented with making the leftovers into cookies.
To my surprise and delight, I discovered that it made the best-tasting raw vegan chocolate cookies I’ve ever had, lacking the bitter taste that I’ve found with so many other raw cookie recipes I’ve tried.
And they’re even nut-free. What a score!
Resources
If you want to learn more about the difference between raw cacao powder and regular cocoa powder, this is an interesting read:
- Raw cacao vs cocoa @ Nourish My Life
Here’s some useful information about Medjool dates and their uses and benefits:
- Jumbo Medjool Dates @ Nuts.com
And a handy link to explain all about shredded, dried coconut:
- What Type of Coconut Do I Use in My Recipe? @ Taste of Home
And have yourself a guilt-free day ♥
4 comments
Annie
“Nut free cookies”, first ingredient – cocoNUT LOL
Nikki
Hi Annie,
Fortunately, coconut is not a nut! But I see what you mean :)
Jennifer
So perfect! Minimal ingredients arranged in a really clever fashion. I need to re-up my date supply and make these! I’m pretending I took the bite out of that one right now and it’s really working for me. To keep it fresh, I store them in jars. The jars are airtight and blocks harmful light, resulting fresh cookies for a longer period of time.
Nikki
Thanks for the tip, Jennifer.