Chocolate Chia Cookies

I am a huge cliche. It's true. ANY fad, diet, craze going I will be the first in line to join up with such gusto I truly believe this is the one that will make me glow internally and look like Natalie Portman externally. Well...... the current vegan, coconut cooking oil, nutribullet and of course chia seed hype sweeping the nation has me firmly in it's coils (if you ignore the wine, steak and cadburys creme eggs, of course). These cookies from Deliciously Ella were this weeks experiment and I have to say they are really quite tasty and the fact they are guilt free makes them more tasty. Lenny's reaction of "can't I have a custard creme" slightly burst the healthy living bubble but hey.... small steps.....

Makes 10 cookies

- 1 cup of almonds

- 1 cup of hazelnuts

- 1 cup of quinoa or buckwheat flour

- 1/3 of a cup of pure maple syrup

- 1/4 of a cup of medjool dates

- 1/4 of a cup of water

- 3 heaped tablespoons of raw cacao powder

- 3 tablespoons of chia seeds

- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil

Simply place the nuts into a food processor and blend for a minute or two until a flour forms, then add all of the remaining ingredients and blend again until a sticky cookie dough forms.

Scoop about a tablespoon into your hands, roll it into a ball and then flatten it using a spatula onto the baking tray so that they are nice and thin. Keep doing this until all the cookies are on the tray.

Bake for about twenty minutes at 180C, until the cookies are firm and starting to slightly brown. Then leave them to cool for a few minutes before enjoying!