"Unwanted" Pretzels and Chocolate Cookies and Samoas? (Coconut Date Cookies)

Today I made some yummy and interesting cookies that are chock full of chocolate and white vanilla flavored coated pretzels as well as some chopped up Palmer's chocolate.  I don't get it?  At Easter time, the boys always get chocolate bunnies from the Easter Bunny and they always gobble them up.   Santa gave them these chocolate North Pole Pals for Christmas---

Cute, huh?  Silly Santa!  Doesn't know anything?  For some reason they decided they didn't like them.  Whatever.  But I decided not to just throw them away.  I chopped up a cute polar bear and a sweet little penguin

Sorry cute penguin.  I made my favorite cookie dough and added 7 ounces of Palmer's chopped North Pole Pals, about 12 ounces of chocolate covered pretzels (mostly white) and for good measure, 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips.  We had a lot of chocolate covered pretzels that were given to us this year.  Also in the past, the boys gobble them up.  Nope, this time they decided they didn't want them.  So I chopped those up, too.

Into the dough they went.  I thought the dough was SO good with the bit of saltiness from the pretzels and they were definitely sweet enough!

Okay, I admit it.  I really like chocolate chip cookie dough!  There, I said it.  (I didn't really taste THAT much of it, I'm trying to be good!)  But sometimes, I'd rather have dough than a cookie!  Sigh.

And they cookies--GREAT!  Anyone (local) want some?  Come and get them! ; )  I'm proud of myself that some great things didn't go to waste, now if I could just figure out how to get the cookies to NOT go to my waist! ha

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Wanting to bake the other day, but also wanting to find a more healthy treat, I found these great cookies on Tina's great blog, Carrots 'N' Cake. (Check out her amazing, healthy, fun blog!)  She mentioned that her husband thought they tasted like the Girl Scout Samoa cookies, without the chocolate.  So since they are pretty healthy, I drizzled some  melted 60% dark chocolate over them and they do taste a bit like the Samoas I remember.  Great little snack cookies.  Tina made 12 bigger cookies with her recipe, but I made them pretty small and got about 36.  I think they are gluten free and could be made vegan pretty easily, too.

Coconut Date Cookies (Samoas), from Tina at Carrots 'N' Cake, adapted ever so slighty

1 cup pitted dates (approximately 15-20 whole dates; make sure measuring cup is full)

1/4 cup oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut (I used unsweetened)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup brown sugar (Tina used 1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar) (I used brown sugar) 

1 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup soy milk (I used skim milk)

Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend well until there are no large date pieces.  Make balls of dough with your hands in the desired size and put them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.  Let cookies cool a few minutes on baking sheet, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.  

For Samoas-Melt 1/4 cup of chocolate chips  (I used 60% cacao dark chocolate) in the microwave.  Pour the melted chocolate into a zip top plastic bag, squeeze the air out of it and zip it up.  Cut a little hole in one corner of the bag and drizzle chocolate over the cookies.  Let set in a cold place.

Thanks, Tina!  Great cookies!