Cocoa Date Raw Cookies

I've been thinking about raw food lately. I don't eat much in the way of raw and I'd like to make a concerted effort to do so more often. It's good, it's clean, it's alive and I know it makes me feel good to eat it. Unfortunately, it doesn't make me feel so much better that I'm swayed to, say, select sprouted raw falafel over cupcakes, but I know I can (and should) try harder to be better about eating things that are good for me--not all the time, but, let's say, more of the time.

If I lived in San Francisco and could regularly eat at Cafe Gratitude, a raw place where the food is so amazing and seems so fresh and pure that the utterly pervasive hippie vibe it has going on does not send me running, but rather, strikes me as oddly comforting, just plain kind and good and makes eating there a totally refreshing joy, I would eat raw regularly. You have not fully experienced the pleasures of raw food until you've eaten the "I am flourishing" plate. Incidentally, all of their dishes are named in such a way that they force you to make positive statements about yourself while ordering--it's irritatingly endearing. But I don't live in San Francisco, and even if I did, eating everyday at Cafe Gratitude would cost me more than a pretty penny.

Especially as we come into the summer here though I think it will feel really good to get a lot of perfectly fresh, raw produce. In about 6 weeks my CSA (Community Support Agriculture) "subscription" or "farm share" will start and I'll be inundated with mountains of fresh, local greens. Then I will really get serious about eating raw. For now, cookies.

I wanted a cookie that wasn't really a cookie, i.e. a cookie that I could eat without thinking, man, I really should not be eating this cookie. A cookie substitute, if you will. A few minutes and a couple quick pulses on the food processor later and I was fully enjoying my not-cookie.

I brought a tupperware full of the not-cooked cookies to the movies with my friends (I am that kind of person) and we passed them back and forth through Namesake (which, frankly, I thought wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be) and by the end of the movie I had an empty plastic container on my lap. I got hit up hard for the recipe the next day, which I had to approximate since I don't keep good notes in the kitchen. My reconstructed recipe seems to have been on-target though. Kjersten's made them twice in the past week and they're working out well.

Do other random, impromptu, uh, shall we say, whismical, cooks have any good systems for tracking what you do in the kitchen when you're making things? I'm hoping that blogging will keep me more on track with this...


Cocoa Date Raw Cookies

about 3/4 cup raw cashews
8-10 medjool dates
3 Tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut
1-2 Tablespoons raw tahini
2 Tablespoons agave or maple syrup
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder--(it occurs to me now that cocoa powder is likely not considered a raw ingredient, ah, well, make it without if you feel moved to banish chocolate, I do not have that power)

De-pit the dates by cutting a slit in one side and pressing the pit out of it.

Process the raw cashews until they are fine and evenly ground in a food processor. Do this by pulsing the processor, rather than just letting it run, to avoid getting a nut butter consistency. Aim for a powdery, ground consistency to the nuts.

Add all of the remaining ingredients and process until smooth and well combined, scraping down the sides of the food processor as necessary.

Roll into 1 inch or so balls and place them to chill in the fridge or let rest at room temperature before serving to firm them up and help them hold together. Makes about 12.