Day 11: Peanut Butter Date Coconut Cookies

I have a secret to tell you guys…. day 11 of cookies has been very difficult to get to you. I was planning on giving you the recipe for Peppermint Meringues. But guess what? After 3 different tries I still couldn’t get the recipe right. And do you know how long meringues take to cook? 2.5 hours… which means I had a LOT of time spent waiting to see if they worked. And they didn’t. So I woke up early on this Christmas Eve day and decided to make another cookie because the 12 Days of Cookies is not complete without a day 11!

We are at my parents house now and a lot of us were in the kitchen this morning. And still are I guess! My brother was making an apple cake and I was whipping up peanut butter cookies. It was a fun morning in the kitchen, although I was a little nervous that these cookies won’t turn out either. But, they did, whew!! And I have to share with you the weather this morning. We are farther up north in Minnesota and yesterday the temperature was -13 below zero F (before the windchill… that was what my car said). And this morning it was -26 degrees F. It’s pretty really cold out, even for Minnesota standards! But it’s supposed to heat up to 13 degrees this afternoon and then start snowing again. What a crazy winter we already have. It’s really a snowy white Christmas here, which is one of the most beautiful things, but I bet come January I could take a little sunshine and warmth!

So today, on this 11th day of Christmas I bring you a Peanut Butter Coconut cookie sweetened with dates. The recipe is out a little later, but it’s still the 11^th day.

This recipe is nut-flour free (and nut free minus the peanut butter) and almost egg free. If you want an egg free recipe, you can do a chia egg. What you can do is mix 1 Tablespoon of Chia seeds with 1/4 cup of water and let sit to thicken about 15 minutes. Mix into the peanut butter cookies just like an egg. Also, they aren’t a super sweet cookie, so if you want them sweeter, add 1 teaspoon of Stevita stevia!

Ingredients

1 cup creamy organic peanut butter

10-13 Medjool dates (10 large, 13 small)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon gelatin

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

1 cup sesame seeds

Directions

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F and take out a baking sheet
In a food processor add the peanut butter, dates, egg and vanilla and turn the food processor on and mix until the dates are all broken up and combined in the peanut butter. It may take a minute or more to do this step
Add the gelatin, salt and coconut to the food processor and pulse until lightly combined
Add in the sesame seeds and mix in the food processor for 1 minute until everything is completely combined and smooth. The dough is going to be pretty thick because of the peanut butter and shredded coconut
Make the cookies using a Tablespoon of dough. You can roll it into a ball or use a Tablespoon cookie scoop. Place about 2 inches apart from each other. Using a fork push down the cookie and make an indent vertically and horizontally
Bake for 8 minutes and very carefully remove from the cookie sheet and allow to cool completely
Store in an airtight container at room temperature

Day 11: Peanut Butter Coconut Cookies

Author: Meghan Birt

Ingredients

1 cup creamy organic peanut butter
10-13 Medjool dates (10 large, 13 small)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon gelatin
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
1 cup sesame seeds

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F and take out a baking sheet
In a food processor add the peanut butter, dates, egg and vanilla and turn the food processor on and mix until the dates are all broken up and combined in the peanut butter. It may take a minute or more to do this step
Add the gelatin, salt and coconut to the food processor and pulse until lightly combined
Add in the sesame seeds and mix in the food processor for 1 minute until everything is completely combined and smooth. The dough is going to be pretty thick because of the peanut butter and shredded coconut
Make the cookies using a Tablespoon of dough. You can roll it into a ball or use a Tablespoon cookie scoop. Place about 2 inches apart from each other. Using a fork push down the cookie and make an indent vertically and horizontally
Bake for 8 minutes and very carefully remove from the cookie sheet and allow to cool completely
Store in an airtight container at room temperature