Nut Cookies

I have to admit that the more I have changed my eating for the better, the more baked things and/or sweet things do not appeal to me that much anymore;  however, I still find myself thinking of ways to make a great cookie or other desserts. It is not so much that I am craving the cookie as that is usually not the case, but that I want to experiment. Here are two cookie recipes I came up with.  I used dates for a sweetener instead of honey. One has a zesty orange flavor and the other hazelnut/chocolate.  Both taste wonderful.  I had a hard time choosing which I liked best.  🙂

For the orange/nut cookie recipe you will need*:

• 5 or 6 dates pitted
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts (unsalted)
• 1/2 cup cashews (roasted or raw)
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 3 eggs
• zest from one orange
• juice from one orange
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of arrowroot powder
• 1/2 cup coconut flour

* for the hazelnut/chocolate cookies, replace cashews with raw hazelnuts and replace the orange with one melted square of 100% dark chocolate (of course a great mix would be to put the orange with the chocolate.  I will try that next time!).

Put the dates, nuts, and butter into a food processor and mix until fairly smooth.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients, adding the coconut flour last.   Mixture will look like this for the orange cookies.

Or this if you are mixing the chocolate cookies:

Roll into balls and flatten onto a stone cookie sheet. If you do not have a stoneware cookie sheet. I recommend one, or two :-).  They have many uses and you pretty much cannot burn a cookie with them.  I also recommend one with a rim just in case you need to do a waterbath for whatever reason.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes.  Cookies will be chewy, but probably less chewy depending on how flat you press them before baking.

These remind me of a shortbread.  Great for a tea party!