Date Peanut Butter Coconut Bites

These decadent morsels make an incredible, indulgent dessert that you can feel good about. Entirely vegan, packed with protein and natural sugars, it will also provide an energy boost.

These are perfectly balanced between sweet, nutty and tropical flavors. Smooth, creamy, chewy, and sugary textures all balance each other out.

The textural and flavor combinations are nothing short of sheer perfection.

I have always been absolutely in love with dishes that have battling elements: temperature - hot and cold; texture: crunchy, smooth, chewy, crisp, creamy; level of decadence: crisp and refreshing, watery and light versus thick and decadent, rich and dense. It is my sincere and heartfelt belief that combining dueling elements such as these in a dish makes them much more interesting, complete, complex, satisfying and addictive.

Simplicity is not necessarily the antithesis of complexity, and this scrumptious construction is a dessert that creates the perfect moment to prove exactly what that means even to the most skeptical of dessert critics.

I could take much longer describing the beauty in this contradiction-filled dessert, but in less time than it takes to read this, you could have already made some! So, rather than holding you up any longer, I release you. I set you free to go do what you want with your time on this earth, with no excuse to not take a couple of minutes to combine three ingredients that you likely already have on hand, which are begging to be brought together so that their qualities can be fully appreciated. Some combinations have a way of bringing out the best in their individual components in a way that would be impossible if just one part were trying to show what they were all about on their own. This is one of those situations. Go try it and find out what I mean for yourself.

First, one must select the ingredients.

The dates: Medjool or Deglet Noor? Pitted or with pit in?

The nut butter: If you are going with peanut butter, salted or unsalted? Creamy and smooth or crunchy and chunky?

The coconut: flaked or shredded?

All of these decisions will fundamentally change the nature of this simple dessert. Because there are so few ingredients, each one remains prominent and is allowed to shine. In fact, it is necessary for them all to shine in order for this treat to meet its potential. They all must come to the battle with equal ability to show what they’re made of so that the flavors are all constantly vying for the attention of your taste buds and texture receptors, without any of them ever conquering the others. It must be the perfect combination and ratio so that it is the game of rock, paper, scissors that can never be won. I imagine not unlike Remy from the film Ratatouille when he bites into the cheese, strawberry and grape in one of the opening scenes and sees the different color swirl and sound combinations they manifest as in his mind, already elegant on their own, combining to create one masterpiece when he tastes the separate elements in one bite. This sweet symphony is something that cannot be done justice solely through describing it in just words. Taste it, and see for yourself.

This is the combination I most often use:

Ingredients:

Dates

Creamy Peanut Butter

Shredded Coconut

Steps:

1. Select several dates. The number depends on the variety of date you have selected. For Medjool dates, just one or two will do. For Deglet Noor dates, five or six will be fine. The package may say to rinse them. If so, do this next.

2. If the dates are not pitted, you will then need to de-pit them.

3. Spoon a generous amount of peanut butter into each date. Enough so that they are full, but not quite overflowing(, well, no more than a little bit :) ).

4. Sprinkle enough shredded coconut to cover the surface of the peanut butter, with a small amount falling gently around on the plate. Maybe it is slightly sloped atop the peanut butter so that it forms a small mound, if you are as much a coconut fan as I am one.

5. Finally, enjoy your masterpieces. Utilize every sense to do so. First, taking it in visually, noticing the contrast in color, shape, and form. The ridges and valleys of the surface of the date make for a fascinating landscape for your eyes to peruse. Then, note the aroma, likely the peanut butter will be the most prominent element here. Lastly, you will take a bite, simultaneously experiencing the feeling of the textures in your mouth as you hear the sound of the flavors that you’re tasting combine as you bite down and proceed to chew. The coconut may provide the most notable sound element. When it comes to taste though, there is no one component that will outshine the others; if done right, the flavor will be none of the three components, but a wholly new flavor of its own, one created by the heavenly combination of the three originals.

Variations:

There is an endless potential with all the variety of desserts that one could create that flow in a similar vein to the original masterpiece.

Other nut butters - Almond Butter, Cashew Butter, etc.

Seed butters - Pumpkin Seed Butter, Tahini Paste (Sesame Seed Butter), etc.