Vegan Caramel Cashew Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I had a day off all to myself, and it was kind of nice.  I slept in, went for a 30 mile bike ride, then decided to make cookies.  Why not?  The truth is I had been thinking about those cookies my entire bike ride.  I come up with some of my best recipes while I am running and biking because I have few distractions, and it is a good time to just think and daydream.  I had some lovely cashews and chocolate from Raw Guru and I wanted to make something with them that wasn't raw cheesecake (which used to always be my go-to raw cashew dessert).  What came into my head was Caramel Cashew Chocolate Chunk Cookies. I hadn't baked chocolate chip (or chunk) cookies in a while and they sounded fabulous!  Why not include some rich crunchy cashews?  My Grandma always used to include walnuts, so I like nuts in my chocolate chip cookies (I know cashews are not technically a nut, but you know what I mean).  They also sent me some Rawmio Essentials dark chocolate, so it was perfect!  I got the idea for the whole caramel cashew thing from a Rawmio Caramel Cashew Bark that they also sent me that was amazing.  So amazing I had to repeat the flavor combination.

For the cookie base, I used my classic chocolate chip cookie dough, but swapped my usual almond butter for cashew butter since they are cashew cookies. You might be thinking why nut butter in cookies, well, I used to make my cookies with all coconut oil, but I find that a blend of nut butter and coconut oil instead of just all oil is a better texture and less greasy.  So that is what I use now.  Plus it makes a lovely soft in the middle crisp at the edges cookie which is my favorite.  Although these are called caramel cashew, they don't actually have any real caramel in them, just my favorite healthy caramel swap, dates!  Yes, dates nature's caramel, the perfect thing to chop up and throw in a recipe like this if you want little chunks of "caramel" throughout!  The dough for these cookies was so good!  Crunchy cashews and chewy dates in the smooth dough...I could not stop sampling it!  But as you probably know if you have read my past posts, I like to make cookies just so I can eat the dough so it is nothing unusual for me!

They smelled so good while they were baking!  I could not wait to try one!  Immediately after they came out of the oven, I added the Rawmio Essentials dark chocolate and I was getting excited.    I did not wait until they were cooled completely to try one, because the second best thing besides cookie dough is warm cookies!  OMG, they were crave worthy!  The sweet gooey dates, crunchy pecans and rich dark chocolate were perfect together in the sweet cookies!  If you are in a baking mood, or maybe just need a mood boost, make yourself a batch of these babies!  They are sooo good!

Vegan Caramel Cashew Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes 16 large cookies

Ingredients:

•  2 Tbsp ground flax seed
• 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp filtered water
• 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil, warmed to liquid
• 1/2 cup raw cashew butter
• 1 1/2 cups Raw Guru organic coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 3 cups gluten free all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup chopped Raw Guru raw cashews
• 1/2 cup dates, chopped into smaller pieces
• 3/4 cup Rawmio essentials dark chocolate, cut into chunks or vegan dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F degrees.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flax seed and filtered water.  Set aside in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, coconut oil and cashew butter with sugar and mix until well combined
   Mix in the vanilla extract and flax mixture until well combined.  Add the baking soda and salt then the flour, a cup at a time, mixing between each addition, until well combined.  Mix in the cashews and dates.
4. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. To Form the cookies take about a 1 1/2 inch chunk of dough, form into a ball and on prepared cookie sheets a couple inches apart, and press down just slightly. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until puffed and just starting to brown slightly.
6. Remove from the oven, and press the chocolate chunks into the cookies (I do this instead of mixing them in because they look prettier and don't melt so much that way), and let cool on the pan a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool.
7. Repeat with remaining cookies and let cool for at least 15 minutes before enjoying.