Date paste is one of my new favorite ingredients. It adds flavor, sweetness and a little fiber, plus it gives pale baked goods some color. I've been putting it in various cookie recipes including these Vegan Date Paste Double Chocolate Cookies, which are soft, fat, chocolate cookies with no dairy or eggs.
Dates and a bit of cornstarch help bind the cookies, and the fat is coconut oil. For extra flavor I added espresso powder, but you can leave it out and the cookies are still great. Also, if you don't want a hint of coconut flavor in your cookies, use regular vegetable oil or look for unrefined coconut oil.
I've made these at least 4 times and love the results with both whole wheat pastry flour and all-purpose, so use whatever you have, but make sure you weigh the flour since different flours have different weights per cup. I have not tested Date Paste Double Chocolate Cookies with a gluten-free 1:1 blend yet, but I think it would work.
How to Make Date Paste
Making date paste is pretty simple if you have a decent blender. There are tons of websites with directions on how to do it, but basically it's this: Put about a half pound of pitted dates in a bowl (Medjool, but other dates work). Boil 1 ½ cups of water and pour 1 cup of it over the dates. If you need more, use more, but 1 cup should do it. Let the dates sit until they are soft. Drain the dates, reserving about ¼ cup of water. To finish the date paste, puree it in a blender, adding as much of the reserved water as needed.
Recipe
Date Paste Double Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (3.4 oz weight) all-purpose flour (weigh, or stir well and aerate) or whole wheat pastry flour 95 grams
- ¼ cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons date paste 40 grams
- 2 tablespoons almond milk or another non-dairy milk
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- ¼ cup coconut oil or your whatever oil you have
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ to ½ cup dark or bittersweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, cornstarch, baking soda and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl. stir together date paste, almond milk and both sugars until blended. Add the oil and vanilla and stir until smooth.
- Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture and stir to form a soft dough. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop the dough by tablespoons onto a baking sheet. Gently shape the dough into little balls and press down slightly -- dough should be soft, but not at all runny.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Anna
Not a dumb question, just a matter of formatting. Some of my weights got moved when I changed recipe formatting software, so the 3/4 cup volume and the 3.4 being next to each other makes it confusing. But it's 3/4 cup volume and if you weigh it 3.4 or 95 grams. To make it easier, I'm in the process of converting all the oz weight measurements to grams so it should read 3/4 cup (95 grams).
TG
Hi Anna - i sure have gotten behind on your posts. 🙂
I am also sure this is a dumb question but this measurement confuses me:
3/4 cup 3.4 oz all-purpose flour (weigh, or stir well and aerate) or whole wheat pastry flour
is that 3/4 cup plus 3.4 ounces?
I'm excited at how many vegan recipes you have done, i can't wait to try them all! xo
Steph
Anna -
I tried the first date paste recipe, with a couple of twists, for a group function this past week--delightful! And my hubs really liked them--says they taste like a glazed doughnut hole...
I'm a long-time reader of your blog, and I want to say a huge, sincere thank you for your not making me scroll...and scroll...and scroll...and scroll some more... to get to the recipes!!! 😉 Love your commentary, but I'm principally here for the recipes. 😉
Sue
Those look completely different from the chocolate chip date paste cookies you posted! Both recipes are interesting.
Sonya
Yum!