Well Guys, I did it. I made something with dates and it actually turned out pretty well! These really do have a lot of chocolate flavor and they are vegan as well. Here’s the recipe:

• 2 cups pitted dates
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup roughly cut nuts, I used pecans and almonds
• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup natural almond or peanut butter

First take the dates and soak them in warm water for 10 minutes. I actually couldn’t find already pitted dates at the store, but if you buy dates with pits you can just cut them out yourself before you soak them.

While the dates are soaking take the cup of walnuts and process them in a food processor until they are the consistency of loose meal. Scoop them out of the food processor and set aside.

Drain the dates and put them in the food processor next. You’re going to want to bland them until they form kind of a paste consistency. They are very sticky and you may have to scrape the sides of the processor several times to place all the dates near the blades and have them uniformly blended.

Next take the walnuts and transfer them back to the food processor. Add the cocoa powder and blend together until you have what looks kind of like brownie batter.

Transfer to a bowl and combine the date mixture with the oats and the rest of the nuts. It may be relatively difficult to combine. I gave up with a spoon and just used my hands to mix it.

Next take the honey and peanut butter and warm them in a small skillet on med-high heat for a few minutes

Take the mixture off the heat and pour onto the date/nut mixture. Since the honey mixture is hot it combines a lot more easily with the dates.

When your mixture is ready take some parchment paper and line a baking pan. I only had a 9×13 dish, which works fine for this recipe even though you’re not going to use the whole length of the pan. Take your mixture and spread it on the pan into a square shape like so:

Pop them in the freezer to firm up and then cut them after they’ve been chilling for about 30 minutes. If you want them to be full bar size you can cut them into 12 bars, but I cut them into 24 pieces for a more bite size snack.

If you keep them out of the cold for too long they will get squishy again, so you can store them in the freezer and they will keep for about a month if you have them covered.

And the final results….They are pretty good! I’m not going to lie, it’s not like these taste like brownies, but the chocolate does give them a good flavor. I broke them up into 24 pieces instead of 12 because all the nuts make these very rich in fat. They do make a good snack on the go if you’re craving something sweet, but I’d say it’s best to keep them cold because otherwise they will get a bit mushy.