Less sweet raw chocolate covered peanut butter balls

1. Grind in food processor and set aside

• 2 c. walnuts

2. Grind in food processor

• 2 c. (about 8oz) dates 

3. Add

• previously ground walnuts
• 1 c. powdered sugar (previously was 2 c.)
• 2 c. peanut butter

 Roll into balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet

4. Melt in 30 second increments in microwave

• 1 bag dark chocolate chips (Or semi-sweet if you want sweeter)

5. Dip peanut butter balls into melted chocolate, let cool and harden.

My taste buds are moving away from super sweet foods so this year made everything less sweet. Hope everyone still likes the cookies. However, I still made the traditional rice krispie treats so those are plenty sweet. This year I don't have a gluten free kitchen and was making everything downstairs before running it upstairs to bake. What a pain.

updated 4 ingredient peanut butter cookies with almond flour

15' at 350F, Very fragile until they cool
about 3 pans of cookies

Mix together

• 3 c. peanut butter
• 1 c almond flour
• 2 c sugar
• 3 eggs

roll into balls, place on cookie sheet, flatten with fork in cross hatch pattern

Raw Mango balls rolled in coconut

adapted from: https://minimalistbaker.com/mango-energy-bites/

1. Toast 8-12 minutes at 350F. (Not sure if this step is needed, but it made the nuts smell very nice.)

• 1- 1/4  c. raw walnuts/cashews combined

2. Pour hot water over and soak for 5-7 minutes till soft & pliable but not soggy.

• 4-5 oz (about 1 c.) package dried unsweetened mango

VERY IMPORTANT. Drain and pat dry before using or dough will be too wet

3. Grind toasted nuts to find meal in food processor. Remove and set aside

4. Use food processor to make paste/ sticky dough

• Soaked, drained mango
• 10 dates (I used Tunisian.) 

 5. Add to food processor

• ground toasted nuts
• 2 T ground flax (didn't have hemp) (Add more if dough too wet) (add more dates if dough too dry)
• 1/3 c unsweetened finely shredded (desiccated) coconut (can grind flakes to this texture)
• pinch salt

6. Roll about a teaspoon into balls

7.  Roll balls into mixture of

• 1/4 c. powdered sugar
• 1/2 c. desiccated coconut

These have a very delicate flavor and weren't very sweet that's why I added the powdered sugar. I wonder what would make the mango flavor more intense. Or maybe cinnamon would be good in these?

Store 3-4 days room temp, 1 week fridge, 1 month freezer

Coconut balls dipped in chocolate

adapted from: https://minimalistbaker.com/5-ingredient-dark-chocolate-macaroons/

8-10' at 350 F
Makes 18-20 small cookies
(I line baking sheets with foil to try to keep gluten contamination down.)

1. Use food processor to make into a rolling dough like consistency that can be squeezed into balls.

• 8 oz package, about 5 cups coconut chips (that's all we had available) Only 1 package fits in my food processor so made batch twice and combined them.

 2. Add through food processor opening while running

• scant 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 3 T maple syrup

(Note: Do not put dough in fridge before rolling into balls. It gets very hard.)

3. Roll about a teaspoon of mixture between hands to make balls and put on baking sheet.

I didn't brush tops with melted coconut oil and sprinkle with leftover crumbs. Maybe that would have browned the balls.

4. Bake 8-10' at 350F, let cool. Move to wax paper covered cookie sheet.

5. Dip bottoms in

• 1/2- 1 c melted dark chocolate chips (I had extra so made chocolate "X" on top of cookies

This recipe looks interesting.
https://minimalistbaker.com/dark-chocolate-golden-milk-macaroons/