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Chocolate Drop Protein Cookies

I’m all about an easy no bake dessert, and these healthy Nutella thumbprint cookies definitely fit the bill! With minimal ingredients and no fancy equipment required These are packed with a sweet chocolate hazelnut surprize in the center and so easy to make.
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine Healthy Clean Eating
Keyword chocolate drop protein cookies, clean eating dessert or snack, healthy thumbprint cookies no bake, no bake protein cookies, no bake thumbprint cookies
Servings 12

Ingredients

  • 1 cup cashew nuts
  • 1 cup dates, soaked 30 minutes and drained
  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
  • 1/4 cup almond butter
  • 3 tablespoons milk of choice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup Nutella or homemade chocolate protein spread – recipe below in notes

Instructions

  • In a food processor add cashew nuts and rolled oats and process until broken down and crumbly. Add dates, coconut. almond butter, milk, vanilla extract and salt and continue to process until you have a dough consistency. It should hold its shape when pressed between your fingers.
    If the mixture seems too dry, add a little more milk a tablespoon at a time until it comes together.
    Divide the dough into 12 portions and shape them into cookies.
    You can use cookie scoop to make equally sized cookies if preferred. My scoop holds around 1-1½ tablespoons of dough and I got 12 cookies.
    Arrange on a tray and flatten into round disks.
    Use your thumb to press a small indentation or well in the center for the chocolate filling using your thumb or the handle of a wooden spoon. Repeat for all the cookies.
    This little indent is where you will add your chocolate spread or jam. Avoid pressing too deeply into the cookies; the hole should be wide enough for the chocolate topping but not break the base. So keep the indent wide but not deep.
    Place the bites on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
    Freeze for 20–30 minutes until firm.
    Its now time to fill them with chocolate spread, nut butter or jam. You can use a homemade,protein chocolate spread. Recipe for that is below in notes.
    Fill each indentation with a ½ teaspoon of your choice of topping.
    If you wish to make a professional looking cookie, transfer your preferred topping to a piping bag or a Ziplock bag and cut a corner off to deposit into each cookie indent.
    Once filled, refrigerate until set, preferably overnight. But if you are in a hurry, freeze the cookies for 30 minutes instead of refrigerating overnight.
    Note: Store your cookies in the refrigerator, or freeze them for up to a month.
    Let them thaw out before eating.
    Top Tip: Prepare all ingredients before starting to ensure a smooth process and avoid forgetting steps.

Notes

Best Healthy Chocolate Protein Spread
Have you been looking for a healthy Nutella alternative? How about a Chocolate Protein Spread!? This recipe is quick to make, delicious, and goes great on almost EVERYTHING!
The good thing is…an ever increasing number of new protein-enhanced nut butters and spreads have entered the market. Their offer? Healthier versions of some of our favourite pancake toppers: things like peanut butter, almond butter, and chocolate spread.
These products’ claim to fame is that they take out the sugar, reduce or eliminate what many consider to be undesirable sources of fat (things like palm oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil), and take away what the cheesy call ‘the nasties’ (e.g. high-fructose corn syrup, corn solids, inverted sugars, artificial flavours and colours, additives and nutritionally-void fillers).
After doing this – after taking out all the ingredients that are doing nothing for us in the context of a healthy diet, they take it all up a further notch by adding back some good things like whey protein powder. The result? A more nutritionally-balanced nut butter or spread that is lower in carbs, lower in fats, and higher in protein.
It’s actually so easy to make your own version of these high-protein spreads and nut butters if you make the time to do so.  You can use this chocolate protein spread with pretty much anything!
Add it into yogurt or cottage cheese, use it on fresh fruit, in a sandwich, with toasted bread, crackers, rice cakes, or other high protein desserts or… dare I say it, eat it straight from the jar!
Here’s a recipe to get you started – a recipe that might just revolutionize your approach to chocolate spread… forever!
Go here for the recipe:       Healthy Homemade Chocolate Protein Spread 
https://blendedbites.com/super-foods/best-healthy-chocolate-protein-spread/
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