I’ve been going crazy with the hazelnuts lately. I still dislike them in their natural form but grind them up, add sugar and chocolate and it’s all good.
I admit that these cookies don’t taste like your typical buttery chocolate cookie and they certainly don’t taste like Nutella cookies (I had high hopes!) but they’re still awesome. Really. They’re chewy and don’t taste too healthy.
You know what? Dates terrify me. I have this weird thing with texture and I can’t imagine a food with a worse texture than dates. Doesn’t anyone else think they resemble cockroaches? Both just terrify me. I’ve never touched a roach* but I imagine that they feel just like dates. And they’re so slimy! Roach guts… eww. I’m sure there’s some rule out there about how you’re not supposed to liken the ingredients in your recipes to the nastiest insects ever, but I had to get it out. Anyway, my point is that if you’re doubtful of the dates, don’t be. You’ll get over it when you eat these! If I can get over them, so can you.
If you’re a coconut fan, you might want to toss in some extra coconut because these don’t have a strong coconut taste, although it’s there. I’m not a fan of coconut but was happy with these. Look at that! I dislike hazelnuts, coconut and dates and still loved these cookies.
* One time in college I abandoned my bedroom for over a week because I saw a cockroach in there. I grabbed a bunch of clothing and closed off the cracks under the door with towels and closed the air conditioning vents… with paper and duct tape. I don’t know about where you are, but in Austin they’re horrifyingly huge. I’m thankful there are no roaches in Germany (at least that I’ve seen). I’m so sorry for all the roach talk. Here’s a nice picture as compensation for reading this. :)
I’ve been fiddling with grain-free recipes lately. Some recipes have been downright nasty, but a lot of them have been worthy of sharing so I’ll be posting some every now and then.
The chocolate chips are optional. The first time I made them, Mr. Texanerin wouldn’t eat them, claiming that he now “doesn’t like cocoa.” Seriously. The second time I made them with the “real chocolate” and he devoured them.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 cup (180 grams) raw hazelnuts
- 1/4 cup (28 grams) coconut flour
- 1/4 cup (20 grams) cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 6 dried medjool dates or 100 grams of regular dates (let them soak in water for about 30 minutes – an hour)
- 1/4 cup (55 grams) coconut oil, melted (refined if you don’t want a coconut taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons (60 grams) honey
- 1 1/4 cup (75 grams) chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 350ºF / 190ºC. Grind the hazelnuts in a food processor until they’re coarse and they release just a little bit of oil. Be careful not to process too long or you’ll have hazelnut butter. Then add the coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Pulse a few times until well combined. It should be like a fine flour. Transfer this to a large bowl and add the dates, coconut oil, vanilla and honey to the food processor and process until very well combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix and then stir in the chocolate chips. Form into balls (mine were about golf ball sized) and flatten a little bit. They don’t expand very much. Bake for 9 – 12 minutes. Yields about 12 – 15.
25 comments on "Grain-free Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies" — Add one!
Has anyone ever made these with pecans or cashews?
Christina – I hope you can find your dream home soon with a proper oven! I really dislike living in temp places. I suppose they're all temporary until you get a house. Anyway, good luck and remember to use hazelnuts next time! :D
Hi Erin – just seen this response. That's interesting about the hazelnuts – that could be it! My oven definitely doesn't help! Roll on finding our dream home! :-)
Christine – I could be wrong, but I think that hazelnuts are more oily. I'm just saying that because when I make hazelnut butter, it's done really quickly, but the almonds seem to take forever to make almond butter. So maybe the dryness was because of the almonds? Or like you said, your oven. :) These should be very chewy. You've said before you're totally new to baking, so I wonder, could it be that you think things are still undercooked when they're really not? I used to do the same thing with cake and muffins and so on. And brownies. Just an idea… :) And thanks for leaving feedback! I hope you get oven mystery cleared up.
I tried these yesterday. I hadn't any hazelnuts so used up the almonds I had instead. Again I am going from pretty undercooked to slightly overdone (they aren't burned but very dry). Once again the taste is great. I need to check out my oven to see if I need to adjust temperatures or not. I might add extra dates next time too as my husband loves dates…….
Brandi – Thanks! :)
Georgia – That's very nice of you. Thanks! I would love to enter your giveaway but I don't live in the US and I'm guessing it's only for US residents. Thanks, though. :)
These look so delicious! What gorgeous photos to accompany a lovely recipe, too. Thanks for sharing. Also, I’m having a great giveaway today with four potential prize winners, so you should enter!
oh my goodness these look good!
Miryam – Yay! Then I'm going to try these with prunes some time. Thanks for the answer. :)
With prunes everything I have made so far works well. Thanks so much for the coconut flour advice, I will take that into consideration :-)
Baltic Maid – Thank you. :)
And if you love hazelnuts, I'm pretty sure you would love these. You could even toss in some chopped up hazelnuts for a hazelnut overload.
oh my goodness, these look amazing… I LOVE hazelnuts!!! Thanks for sharing this!
Nora – Thanks! And haha. Good to know that you don't enjoy roaches. :)
Just to clarify, I meant chomping on a date not a roach :)
These look incredible! Love that they are grain free as well :)
Ewwww, Texas roaches are the worst! I don't miss those yucky things being in MT, that's for certain! I do love dates yet I can see the resemblance …I'll try not to think about that next time Im chomping down on one :) haha
Heidi – Thanks! And the cookies really are yummy. Since you already like healthy stuff, you would for sure like them. :)
Wow, these sound so good. Looooove the chocolate on top – so pretty!
Marisha – Thanks! And finally… someone who understands my cockroach problem! The thought of flying cockroaches make me want to stay away from Texas forever.
But one good thing is that I learned to keep my apartment very tidy following that incident. :)
These look delicious!
Cockroaches?? NO MA'AM. I'm in South Texas and I know what you mean about the size. It's like they take on a life of their own down here – and they can fly or jump or whatever. Ewwwww……
Miryam – So do all the recipes come out okay with prunes? Because I would really rather use those. And they're much easier for me to find.
A lot of things I've tried with coconut flour I haven't like. I think it gives things a funny texture, but maybe that's just me. I think this was the first time I didn't notice the coconut flour and so I didn't mind it at all. If I were you, I'd try to find a smaller package (and not a 5 kilo bag or something like that) and try out a few recipes. But I'm not sure if you can use it instead of whole wheat flour in recipes. It sucks up more moisture than normal flour and I think a lot of recipes that use coconut flour often have lots and lots of eggs. I think you should try to find some good looking recipes with coconut flour and use those before experimenting. Oh and the flavor depends on how much you use, but in these cookies, it wasn't really noticeable. In other recipes without strong opposing flavors, it's really noticeable. Good luck! :)
Wow these cookies look divine and ultra healthy :-) I have never baked or cooked with dates. Every time I see a recipe that asks for it I use prunes in place of them because of the better properties they have.
Anyhow, one quick question. How is it baking with coconut flour? I have never tried it. Can you notice the coconut flavor when using it? I could probably use it in cookies and such right? I need to experiment with other flours more often. Barley and oatmeal are awesome but coconut sure sounds good!!
Katrina – Whoops. I forgot to mention that. I just melted some chocolate and added some cream, so I guess it's ganache. I had to make them look more special somehow. :)
Becca – You… can be in the same room as them? Oh no. No no no. That's terrible. Weirdly, I don't think spiders are that bad, unless we're talking about those scarily gigantic ones or tarantulas.
I didn't know what dates were really until about a month ago. I hope you try something out with them! They're not as bad as I thought they would be.
I don't really mind cockroaches as long as they don't get too close. But I can be in the same room as them. But spiders. My god don't even get me started on spiders. I will run screaming like a big dude with a high squeeky voice as fast as I can in the opposite direction of spiders.
These cookies look delicious. I've never baked with dates, but I have a few recipes flagged (like sticky toffee pudding) that have dates in them. I don't even really know what a date feels like. I always thought it was some kind of nut xD
Looove the look of that glaze! Absolutely lovely.
Hello. Thanks for your message.
Beautiful pictures!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe. They are such a fun treat for those who can't have grains, but still want a decadent dessert. You're so cute with your commentary!
What part of Texas are you from? My husband's family lives in Texas (Lubbock and Houston) and my mom used to live in Allen (near Plano).
So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Hugs,
–Amber