Healthy Cookie Dough Cups

Healthy Cookie Dough Cups: Cashew-oat cookie dough center, coated in dark chocolate. Gluten-free and protein-packed.

So back when I was experimenting with some other thumbprint cookies, I also experimented with making some cookie-dough-filled chocolate cups. Since the cookie dough used for the thumbprint cookies is eggless and totally edible without being cooked, I thought, why not?!

So that’s exactly what happened – out of one of the final test batches for those cookies, I used half the dough to make these little candies. Of course, I fell in love with them. Because what’s not to love – cookie dough + chocolate? I mean that’s straight-up happiness right there.

And then I took pictures of them and planned on sharing them, but it’s already mid-January and this whole healthy eating thing is going so well–I mean besides all of the touristy eating I’ve been doing for just about every meal. Okay, right, I am totally failing at this healthy-January thing. But dang. The food and restaurants here are delicious. There’s a little restaurant called Nando’s that I’m mildly obsessed with. It’s been three out of the past five meals for me. So that’s probably classified as more than a mild obsession, but I digress.

Ingredients in Healthy Cookie Dough Cups:

These treats aren’t full of ingredients you can’t pronounce, and they’re also not full of ingredients you can’t find in the grocery store! Take a gander at the products you’ll need; you could very well already have them in your pantry.

• Old-fashioned oats: This is what we use to create the flour. Processing the oats in the blender turns them to dust, and that’s the flour for this recipe!
• Honey: Honey makes a great sweetener.
• Coconut oil: You’ll find coconut oil in the grocery store near the other vegetable and cooking oils. Coconut oil is high in medium-chain triglycerides; those are the fats that our body needs.
  Vanilla: Vanilla helps smooth out the flavors and provides a familiar richness.
• Dark Chocolate Chips: You can get dark chocolate chips in the baking aisle of your grocery store. If you’re sensitive to dairy, check the ingredients to be sure there’s none included.
• Raw Cashews: OK, you may not have raw cashews in your pantry, but they’re not hard to find. Look where the rest of the nuts are sold in the grocery store, or check where bulk items are kept.

More Healthy Treat Recipes:

• Healthy Crunch Bars
• Healthy Fruit Tart
• Healthy Ice Cream
• Healthy Blueberry Muffins
• Healthy Pumpkin Cake

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5 from 1 vote

Healthy Cookie Dough Filled Chocolate Cups (GF)

By Chelsea Lords

A delicious "energy bite" type of treat – a center cookie dough filling made with natural ingredients like cashews and oats. The cookie dough bites are coated in a rich dark chocolate shell. These delicious treats are gluten-free, packed with protein, and an indulgent treat to satisfy your cravings more healthfully.

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients 

USMetric

 

1x2x3x

• ▢ ⅔ cup raw cashews
• ▢ ⅓ cup old-fashioned oats
• ▢ 1½ tablespoons honey
• ▢ 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
• ▢ 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 3 tablespoons miniature dark chocolate chips
• ▢ 1 cup dark chocolate chips use high quality for best results
• ▢ ½ teaspoon coconut oil

Instructions 

• Line a miniature muffin tin with mini muffin liners and set aside.
• In a food processor, pulse the cashews and the oats until they resemble a flour-like consistency. Too little blending and these treats won’t be as smooth and too much blending and it can start to turn into cashew butter. Try to pulse just until it looks like flour.
• Transfer to a bowl and mix in the honey, coconut oil, and vanilla extract.
• Knead with your hands until a thick dough forms. Knead in the chocolate chips.
• Squish the dough to form squat balls – you don't really roll it, but more of a squishing process from one hand to the next. (If the balls aren't sticking together well enough, add a little bit more honey.)
• In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips and coconut oil. Melt in the microwave at half power for 30 seconds and then in bursts of 15 seconds, stirring in between each burst for 10 seconds until the chocolate is melted.
• Using a spoon, dot the bottoms of each of the lined muffin cavities with the melted chocolate.
• Press a small ball of cookie dough into the dot of chocolate spreading the chocolate to cover the bottom of the muffin liner.
• Pour and smooth the chocolate over the cookie dough until it is just covered.
• Alternatively, you could just dip the cookie dough into the melted dark chocolate and place the dipped balls on a parchment-lined tray to harden.
• Allow the cups to completely harden in the fridge.
• Store any leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge as these have a tendency to be a bit melty.

Recipe Notes

Cookie dough filling adapted from Averie Cooks

Nutrition

Calories: 169kcal | Carbohydrates: 16g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 0.2mg | Sodium: 21mg | Potassium: 181mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 2IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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