Pecan Pie Cookie Bites

My husband wanted either Pecan Pie or Pecan Cookies, but all the recipes I found had a lot of oil (even coconut oil in large quantities isn’t healthy), so I came up with these Pecan Pie Cookies. They came out better than I expected. The gooey sweet inside covered with crunchy pecans is rich and decadent. They’re easy to make and don’t require any cooking.

 Ingredients:

• 1 cup medjool pitted dates (about 10)
• ½ teaspoon alcohol-free vanilla extract
• Cinnamon (three powerful shakes)
• 2 level tablespoons unsweetened, creamy almond butter
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans (I used raw, but toasted would be good too). You’ll probably only use ¼ cup but it’s good to have extra, just in case

Tear the dates in half, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and almond butter to a medium-sized mixer until it all clumps together in a large ball. Use a level tablespoon to scoop out each cookie, and roll it in your hands to make a round cookie. Do this with each cookie. It makes 8-9 cookies. (I ate some of the batter while I was making the cookies so, if you can resist eating any of the batter until they’re done, you might even get 10 cookies!)

Lastly, place the pecans in a very small bowl. Dip each cookie, gently into the chopped pecans so that it covers it completely. Put on a plate and place in the freezer. It should be firm and ready to eat in an hour. I prefer these frozen, instead of refrigerated, because they aren’t firm enough and taste too much like sticky dough if they aren’t cold enough. I keep these in the freezer, uncovered, and let one sit out 30 seconds, to unthaw a bit, before eating. These are really rich so one is plenty!

Makes 8-9 cookies         Serving size: 1 cookie

Calories 130 (based on 8 cookies)       Carbohydrates 19 grams each