This Christmas, I happily received a dehydrator. It's something I've been wanting for a while, but just hadn't gotten around to buying one. The first week I had it, I made some beef jerky which was pretty fun…and quite tasty, might I add. Unfortunately, other projects got in the way of my exploring the exciting, non-jerky-oriented things my dehydrator could do.
So now, finally, I got my chance to explore my dehydrator and I decided to make cookies — which is not shocking to anyone who knows about my love of sweets.
These cute little lemony-coconut bites are the wonderful result of my experiment. They actually kind of remind me of the Savannah Smiles flavor of Girl Scout cookies, but without all the added sugar. Plus, they only have five ingredients (six if you decide to use cinnamon)!
These Lemon Coconut Bites have the perfect amount of sweetness to balance out the tart lemon flavor. I made some with cinnamon and some without, and I think I prefer the cinnamon ones to the regular. However, both are delicious!
They make a great afternoon snack because they are just sweet enough without contributing multiple teaspoons of sugar to your day. With only one tablespoon of maple syrup in the entire recipe, each cookie has less than one gram of added sugar. Also, since these are made with cashews, they have a fair amount of protein (especially compared to a regular cookie) to keep you full.
I based my recipe off of this one from The Rawtarian, and I thought they came out great. While I'm not about to switch to a raw food only diet, I will definitely make these again to keep in my bag or purse for a healthy snack.
Lemon Coconut Bites
Recipe by Meme Inge, MS, RD, LDN
Makes 16 small cookies
Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews
3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. cinnamon, optional
Directions
- Put the cashews in a food processor and pulse until they are finely ground. Make sure you don't grind them into cashew butter.
- Add the coconut and pulse a few times. Transfer to a bowl.
- Whisk together the lemon juice, maple syrup and vanilla (and cinnamon if using). Stir into the cashew-coconut mixture. Mix until everything is well coated. If it's too dry, add a teaspoon or so of water until it is damp enough to hold together.
- Shape into tablespoon-sized balls and put on the tray of a dehydrator. Dehydrate on medium for 10 to 12 hours until they are dry all the way through.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature. (I honestly don't know how long they will last because my cookies never last more than a few days before being eaten!).
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 cookie
Calories: 76
Total fat: 6.2g; Saturated fat: 2.8g
Total carbohydrate: 4.8g; Fiber: 0.9g
Protein: 1.5g
