Flour-less Cookies: Salted "Caramel" and Chocolate

I'm going to start with saying that my past experiences with any type of flour-less cookie has ended badly...very badly. Whether my flour-less cooking has ended in a soupy mess or a tasteless glop of unappetizing measures, I usually end up trashing the food and the recipe and moving on.

But this time...success. And more than success...I was literally licking the spoon, convinced that there was no way
that these were going to taste better than they did raw (and that they are kinda healthy!). But, boy, was I wrong.

These cookies are another favorite from My Whole Food Life and called, Flourless Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I doubled in the recipe below (her recipe only made 9...and I felt terrible turning on the oven for just that!). But I think my food processor was too warm, because when I followed the end of the directions and pulsed the chocolate chips in, they actually started to melt, so I just embraced it and the combination of melted chocolate and salty "caramel" (which is really just the blended dates), is addicting.

And because these have no added sugar (just the dates!), I felt fine giving my daughter a second one after she devoured the first :)

Hope you enjoy too!

Ingredients:

3.5c cashews (or 2c of cashew butter and skip direction #1)
10 dates (pits removed and soaked in water for 30ish minutes)
4tbsp of water (I just took it from the water that the dates was soaking in)
2tsp of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of sea salt
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2c of chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet, but original recipe calls for dark)

Directions:

1. Put the cashews in the food processor and blend for about 7 minutes until it makes a nice creamy cashew butter (OR just use about 2c of cashew--or other nut--butter).

2. Preheat oven to 350F.

3. Drain the dates, keeping aside 4tbsp of water.

4. In food processor, combine the dates, sea salt and water and mix until the dates form a creamy caramel. Move to another bowl.

5. No need to thoroughly clean the food processor, but instead but the cashew butter, vanilla and baking powder in and mix for a couple minutes until well-combined.

6. Now add the caramel mixture to the cashew mixture already in the food processor and pulse for a minute or two until you see it combine into a larger mass.

7. Then add the chocolate chips and pulse again. Don't worry if the chocolate chips melt (mine did), it still tastes amazing!

8. Drop the cookies onto a baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper. The mixture will be much softer than other cookie recipes, and that's okay!

9. Bake for 10 minutes or until the outside is firmer and the bottom is only light brown (if it starts getting dark brown it can turn the cookie a bit bitter).

10. Let cool on a cooling rack and enjoy warm (my favorite) or store in a container in the fridge for later!