Make Ahead

Date Sweetened Chocolate Chip Cookies

by:
September 15, 2014
5
6 Ratings
  • Makes 1 dozen
Author Notes

I love revising old time favorites and making them healthy and delicious. This cookie, made with no grains and no refined sugars or fats, is an example of that. The base is walnuts, dates, and eggs and is great for gluten free or paleo living, or just plain healthier eating! —Sarah

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Ingredients
  • 12 dates, pitted
  • 1 cup walnuts or pecans
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/8 teaspoon seasalt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 4 ounces dark chocolate chips
Directions
  1. Blend dates and walnuts in a food processor until finely ground. (It might start to form a paste, but conversely, don’t worry if it’s a little chunky.)
  2. Add egg, vanilla, salt and soda and blend to combine.
  3. Fold in chocolate chips.
  4. Spoon onto parchment covered cookie sheets.
  5. Bake at 350 for 9-11 minutes. You want them to just turn golden and yet still be soft in the middle. Let cool before serving.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

8 Reviews

rachbrarian August 14, 2022
I’ve been experimenting with date-sweetened baked goods, and this is very good. I made it as written with walnuts. I think I would add some flour in the future, but not much. They have a very walnutty flavor, so I imagine you could have lots of variety with different nut bases.
kiki0823 June 10, 2022
Does anyone know what the calorie and carb count is?
Darcy B. August 17, 2021
These are fabulous cookies. I have been making many energy balls with dates and nuts, but I like these cookies better than all of the other recipes I tried. They are easy and quick to make.
Samantha K. September 24, 2020
Great cookie recipe for a no sugar “healthy” cookie. I added a cup of flour and touch of almond milk for a more classic chocolate chip cookie texture and taste. This is now my go to cookie recipe
Samantha K. September 24, 2020
Great cookie recipe for a no sugar “healthy”. I added a cup of flour and touch of almond milk for a more classic chocolate chip cookie texture and taste. This is now my go to cookie recipe
KirstenInCO June 27, 2018
I've tried about a half dozen chocolate chip cookie recipes since going refined sugar and gluten free, all terrible. These are so good and I love the minimal ingredient list. I used pre-pitted medjool dates and the Enjoy Life dark chocolate chips (a little sugar in them, but not many chips per cookie). I refrigerated the dough for about an hour before baking and loosely spooned them onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet (no rolling into balls, no flattening or anything fussy, just scoop & drop). Amazing! They are puffy, moist, not dense, delicious and very close in flavor to the flour/sugar variety. This is now my go-to recipe. Thank you!
Ghazzzit April 30, 2017
Made these with almond flour (AF) instead of the ground nuts just to save some time, otherwise followed the recipe as instructed though I over baked them a little (brown bottoms, done rather than soft in the center).

I found them tasty, very mild on sweetness and overall a bit lacking on flavor. I think the Almond is too blank a canvas (this is likely better with the walnuts as per the recipe). Better quality chocolate chips and dates are important here because their flavor is center stage - possible flaws in what I used. I would have preferred a bit more sweetness and needed more fat to deliver a moister cookie.
Starmade March 2, 2015
I liked this recipe - I wondered how well the cookies would hold together but it is a quite workable cookie with just the right sweetness.