Peanut butter cookies with date filling

I went to the outdoor movies on Saturday night with friends and I seriously prepared for it. In my world, movies = movie snacks. And if you saw my insta stories on Friday/Saturday, you’d know I take movie snacks seriously! I baked cookies, batch after batch, until they turned out good, I thoroughly thought of sandwich combinations making pro and cons lists, I went over and beyond because what’s a movie without good movie snacks. Really.

I baked these peanut butter cookies as part of the feast. The first batch I made was with a banana filling, but I much prefer these later ones filled with dates!

They’re very easy to make, but here’s some tips from my trial and error:

• use Medjool dates if you can for the filling – they’re soft and it matters
• if you do need to use other dates, I recommend making a thick paste with them – put them in a bowl with a bit of hot water to soften them up; soak for half hour in the hot water, drain (but not completely) them and then blend with 1 TBSP coconut oil; use this paste for the filling
• any other date used, if not made into a paste and used as is, will become rock hard after baking, after the cookies cool down; tooth-cracking material

I’ll be sharing my other recipes soon as well. Everything turned out SO good!

Hope you enjoy these cookies. They are just perfect for the movies!

Peanut butter cookies with date filling

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
2. Add the peanuts to a blender and process until the bottom half is butter and the top half is peanut meal. Scoop into a bowl.
3. Add the almond meal, buckwheat flour, coconut sugar, baking powder and mix well until combined.
4. Add the banana and coconut oil and mix until you get a sticky dough.
5. Divide in 12 balls.
6. Add a piece of Medjool date in the middle of a dough ball, roll to cover the date in dough, then flatten with your hands to make a cookie. Place on the baking sheet.
7. Continue with the rest of the cookies and place them all on the cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 22 minutes. Allow to cool before enjoying as the date filling can be quite hot.