Date and Coconut Spice Cookies (Ekadasi)

Sweet and subtly spiced, these cookies have a chewy outside and a dense, moist centre. You’d never know they’re gluten, grain and egg-free. 

Gluten-free / grain-free / soy-free / dairy-free / egg-free / preservative-free / you could even call them paleo

I’ve been checking and rechecking the ingredients in my pantry. I don’t have some kind of weird, food-related OCD: I have a friend coming over in a few hours, and I’m trying to work out what to bake. Due to a hectic day yesterday, I am completely (uncharacteristically) unprepared for my friend’s imminent arrival.

During my childhood, my mother set the benchmark for entertaining guests: even unannounced drop-in guests were treated to something homemade. If the cookie jar was empty, Mum would whip something up. Within minutes, her guests would be burning their tongues as butter melted on steaming gem scones straight from the oven. But I’m not certain I have the right ingredients on hand today to be a mum-level hostess. I know I have almond meal and coconut flour—I’ve been experimenting with a new gluten-free choc chip cookie recipe (coming soon…I promise!). However, it’s Ekadasi today (a fast day on the Hindu calendar where no grains or beans are consumed), so I can’t serve chocolate. As I start mentally rifling through my spice cupboard, it comes to me: the heavenly combination of coconut, dates and spice. If I simply swap the choc chips for date chunks and add cinnamon and ginger…I’d have a pretty decent cookie recipe.

These cookies are very easy to make and take about 10 minutes to prep and another 10 to 12 to bake. The cookie dough is delicious in its raw state (it would work beautifully in a ‘cookies and cream ice cream’ scenario). My only word of caution is that the base of these cookies can burn quite easily, so make sure you keep your oven at or below 160 and swap the trays over halfway through baking.

(Ekadasi) Date and Coconut Spice Cookies Recipe

(Makes 24 cookies)

 INGREDIENTS

• 220g dates (dried dates are suitable in this recipe, but fresh Medjool dates are always best—220g equates to 16 Medjool dates)
• 140g Nuttelex (just under ¾ cup)
• 4 tablespoons organic coconut cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (use imitation vanilla on Ekadasi, or leave it out)
• 140g almond meal (I cup, firmly packed)
• 55g organic coconut flour (¹/₃ cup)
• 45g sulphite-free organic finely desiccated coconut (½ cup)
• 1½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (sifted)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon finely milled salt
• 90g brown sugar (½ cup)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line two baking trays with Glad Bake.
2. Remove the pits from the dates and chop them into sixths.
3. Place the dates, Nuttelex and coconut cream in a saucepan over medium heat giving the pan a little shake to submerge the dates. Bring to the boil and then turn off the heat, leaving the dates to soften while you measure out your dry ingredients.  
4. In a medium bowl, mix the almond meal, coconut flour, desiccated coconut, bicarb soda, spices, salt and sugar together well.                                                                                                             
5. Pour the vanilla extract into the date mixture, and then pour this over the dry ingredients. Mix together very well (making sure to incorporate the last of the dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl). 
6. Scoop up a dessertspoonful of mixture and roll/squeeze into a rough ball. Then flatten the ball between your palms. Place on the baking tray and repeat with the remaining batter.   
7. Using a fork parallel to the cookie press down on the cookie to flatten it a little more and leave a decorative imprint of the tines.                 
8. Pop in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, swapping the trays over halfway through.
9. Once out of the oven, leave to cool on the trays for 3 minutes before transferring the Glad Bake sheet and cookies to wire racks to cool. These cookies are very soft when they first come out of the oven, so be gentle until they’ve had a chance to cool and firm up. 

VARIATION: If you want to up the health bounty in these cookies, swap the Nuttelex for organic coconut oil and swap the brown sugar for rapadura.

These aren’t the prettiest of cookies—‘rustic’ is a polite, baking way of saying ‘ugly’—but they are delicious. The baked cookies are sweet and subtly spiced and have the most satisfying texture: chewy on the outside and soft in the centre. They were simply sublime paired with ginger tea, and were such a hit that my friend wouldn’t leave without the recipe. I hope you’ll love love them, too. Let me know in the comments section.