Recipe: Dessert Bites

With my stash empty and our next visit weeks away, I developed a serious craving for chocolate. These take a few minutes to make if you don't have a food processor, but they make a delicious treat, and they're pretty healthy for a dessert. This is a great recipe for experimenting with adding or removing spices, nuts, and whatever else you might think of.

Ingredients:

• 12 pitted dates (add a few more if the dough just won't stick)
• 1/4 C rolled oats, chopped
• 2 tbsp walnuts, chopped fairly small (large chunks tend to fall out)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp peanut butter (I use crunchy)
• (set aside) ~2 tsp flax meal

Preparation:

1. Knead the dates into a paste with your fingers. You'll end up with a big goo ball.
2. Knead all of the ingredients except the flax meal into the mixture. It may be a little crumbly, but you should be able to pull off chunks of the "dough" and reform them into balls. If it just won't stick, work a few more dates into the mixture.
3. Pull off bite-sized portions and form them into balls.
4. Roll the balls in the flax meal

You should end up with  about a dozen little bite-sized treats.