Hazelnut Choc-chunk Cookies

I had an early mountain bike ride all lined up with a group of girlfriends for the morning of my birthday — what a great way to start the day right?! But after a night of torrential rain, thunder and lightning and the fact it was still raining, we decided it might be best to postpone. I was still hobbling a bit from smashing my knee the week before so I was a little relieved to be honest. So there I was, early birthday morning with nowhere to go, rest of the family still sleeping soundly even though I’d been crashing round for ages.

Nothing left to do but whip up a treat for the day. I knew I had some hazelnuts (my favourite!) and a pack of Green & Black’s dark chocolate so I got to it and made a batch of these delicious cookies — they came out of the oven, warm and crispy, with the chocolate still gooey … luckily it was my birthday … a couple of pre-breakfast birthday cookies never hurt anyone right?!

MAKES 10

Ingredients

1/2 cup dates
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup coconut oil (60g)
1 cup + 1/4 cup hazelnuts
3 tablespoons coconut flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sprinkle of cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of flakey salt
1/3 cup dark chocolate chunks* (just cut chunks of a block of quality chocolate)

* I have made these without chocolate and they were almost as delicious so if you want to make them even cleaner leave it out.

Method

Preheat oven to 175˚C, fan bake. Line a tray with baking paper.

Slice the dates and put them in a small pot or fry pan. Add the honey and coconut oil and heat gently until the coconut oil is melted and warm. Remove pot from the heat and set aside.

Put the rest of the ingredients — apart from the 1/4 cup of hazelnuts and chocolate — in to a food processor and blend until crumbly. Pour the date and oil mixture in to the food processor and blend until well combined.

Roughly chop the 1/4 cup of hazelnuts and stir them through the mixture with the chocolate. Spoon roughly one and a half large desert spoons of the mixture into your hands and press into a round flat shape and place on the tray. They don’t spread so what you see is what you are going to get.

Cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until they are just starting to colour. Cool on a wire rack and store in an air-tight tin.

Try not to eat them before breakfast ;-)