Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

We’re on holiday in Perth, peeps!!! Ok, I’m also running five Quirky Cooking seminar classes while I’m here, so I’m working as well, but we’re away for nearly a whole month with nearly the whole family, so I’m calling it a holiday!

We’re staying in a little house right across from the beach, and we’ve had some absolutely gorgeous weather. Loving it.

Yesterday I decided to make the kids a special treat for afternoon tea, because when you’re a GAPS family you can’t really just go buy holiday snacks – it’s make your own, or eat fruit, veggies and nuts, pretty much. All good, I love baking. And I brought my Thermie with me on the plane, of course, so no problem. (See my Thermie travel tips below!)

So I got out the ingredients to make some of our favourite Cinnamon Donut Cupcakes (recipe in my cookbook), but I couldn’t get the little, old oven to work…What to do?? We ‘needed’ a treat!

Lightbulb moment! I remembered the other day when I was making the base for my raw macadamia lime cheesecake that I’d blended it longer than usual and it became a smooth dough that tasted JUST like raw cookie dough!! No oven needed for that! So I dug through my meager holiday food supplies, and came up with this easy and delicious recipe for raw cookie dough balls, and they worked first go. Phew, disaster averted. The kids wandered off to the beach happily munching them, and I had spent all of 10 minutes in the kitchen. Perfect.

Of course, we all agreed they’d be even better with chocolate chips added, so I made a quick trip to Dynamic Organic the next day looking for dairy free, naturally sweetened chocolate chips. They’re not too easy to find, sadly. I thought about making my own raw, dairy free chocolate and chopping it up into tiny pieces, but I’m on holiday. I’m keeping it simple. So I just bought a block of Loving Earth Coconut Milk Chocolate instead, and chopped some of that up into little bits. That’s probably the easiest way to get dairy free chocolate chips (ok, chunks), that don’t have soy or refined sugar in them. 

So here’s the recipe – a perfect substitute for cake or cookies for when you don’t have an oven (or can’t be bothered baking because you’re on holiday at the beach). They’re also egg free, and can be vegan and dairy free if you use coconut oil. For a nut free version, try using half desiccated coconut and half pepitas.

I’ve included a few other ideas for variations below the recipe, and I’d love to hear what variations you come up with – please share in the comments below!

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls

2015-09-10 08:15:02

Yields 12

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Total Time

10 min

Total Time

10 min

Ingredients

1. 150g blanched almond meal
2. 3 medjool dates, pitted
3. 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
4. 1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
5. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
6. 2 Tbspns ghee, butter or coconut oil
7. 50g dairy free, dark chocolate, chopped into small bits

Instructions

1. Place the almond meal, dates, salt, soda, vanilla, and ghee/butter/coconut oil into the Thermomix bowl and blend 30 sec/speed 9. (Or process until it resembles fine crumbs in a food processor.)
2. Add chopped chocolate and mix in for 5 sec/speed 3 (or by hand).
3. Press dough together to form 12 walnut sized balls, and set on a plate. Refrigerate until firm.

Leave out the chocolate bits and try one of these variations

1. 1 tsp of cinnamon
2. a few drops of lemon essential oil (food grade, eg. DoTERRA)
3. a small handful of currants and 1/2 tsp of mixed spice
4. 1/2 tsp mixed spice and 1 tsp ginger powder
5. 1 Tbspn Dutch cocoa powder and a few drops of peppermint essential oil
6. Nut free: use 75g each desiccated coconut and pepitas, mill until fine, then add remaining dough ingredients

By Quirky Cooking

Quirky Cooking https://www.quirkycooking.com.au/

I get this questions a lot: “Can you take your Thermomix on the plane with you, as carry on luggage?” 

Yes, and no. It depends.

If you have a TM31, you can pop it into the special travel bag, but first you need to remove the blades and put them in your suitcase. Also, take the Varoma out of the back pocket and put that in your suitcase too, or it will be too bulky. (I just pack clothes in and around it in the suitcase.) The carry bag can then fit in the overhead compartment, laying on its’ back. It will weigh nearly 7kg, so it’s just that and a handbag/computer bag for carry on if you do it this way.

If you have a TM5, you’ll need to pack it in its’ original box and foam packaging (I hope you saved it!), mark the box as FRAGILE (and make it clear which way up it should be), then put it through with the suitcases. Don’t forget to add an extra bag to your luggage allowance. It will weigh about 10kg.

Hope that helps!