Whole30-legal vegan chocolate cake cookies

Of course the first thing I have to do is clarify that these are not actually Whole30-legal, because one of the main rules of the Whole30 is that you don't try to re-create junk food with healthy ingredients. But let's just conveniently forget that for a second, because these cookies are THE BOMB, and they're made of stuff that IS Whole30-legal, and I would rather feed them to my kids for breakfast than, say, Cheerios. So there.

I came up with these in the third week of our current Whole30, which is about the point when I for one get a little tired of being so dietarily virtuous all the doggone time, but I don't really consider them much of a cheat. They taste like dark-chocolate cake to me, but if you want them sweeter and don't care about being vegan or Whole30-legal, you could add a bit of honey and some chocolate chips.

Chocolate cake cookies

8 large Medjool dates
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 T coconut flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup water
3 T palm shortening

1. Pit the dates and start them soaking in 1/3 cup of water.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a food processor, grind the walnuts to a powder.
4. Add the dates, water, and palm shortening to the food processor and process with the walnuts until the mixture looks like nut butter.
5. Add all the dry ingredients to the food processor and process until the dough starts to form a ball.
6. Form small balls of dough with your hands, flatten them to cookie shape (they will not spread in the oven), and put them on the cookie sheet (about 20 cookies).
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.