Healthy and easy Cookie Dough Bits that you can add to anything in need of an extra special sprinkling of sweet squishy cookie! Vegan, gluten-free, naturally sweetened.
If you were to combine my favorite flavor of Larabar, a cutting utensil, a lot of patience, and a deep desire for a tasty new sprinkle-on topping, you would end up with something very similar to these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bits. But I have found another road that leads to the same small cookie sprinkle spot and requires almost zero patience or knife skills.
These cookie dough bits are based on this (so simple it’s embarrassing to even call it a) recipe for 2-ingredient chocolate bits. Same medjool base, same ready-in-minutes method, same chewy texture, and equally as versatile. Also equally as delicious frozen–my personal favorite way to store and eat them. The texture turns a little less squishy but still deliciously doughy-soft.
Actually scratch that. Stirred into frozen treats is my absolute favorite way to eat them. They make for a mean blizzard with the help of frozen bananas and a blender.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The secret to achieving the perfect tiny bit texture is to pulse the ingredients in a food processor as opposed to just letting it run. If you process too long you will end up with one giant bliss ball instead of small bits. Adding a quarter cup of oat flour helps here as well to balance out all the sticky-ness. And chilling your dates beforehand (especially if you have an extra sticky batch) makes it easier too.
A touch of vanilla and a pinch of salt recreate the cookie dough flavor. And of course the most important addition: chocolate chips! Mini chips work best, but any will be fine. And since the minis are only 1/4 the size of a full chip that means you need 4 times as many…or something like that.
Itty bitty cookie dough confetti that you can sprinkle on anything. Ice cream, smoothie bowls, cupcakes, pudding, pizz-
Wait…
Okay anything sweet. Anything topped with frosting or whipped cream. Anything that looks like it could use a little extra cookie!
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Healthy and easy Cookie Dough Bits that you can add to anything in need of an extra special sprinkling of sweet squishy cookie! Vegan & gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 1 cup pitted Medjool dates (chilled works best)
- 1/4 cup oat flour
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine everything except the chocolate chips to a food processor (or blender, but a food processor works best here).
- Process in brief pulses until the dates are broken down and the mixture resembles small pea-sized pieces.
- Add the chocolate chips. Pulse to mix them in.
- Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze for an even firmer texture. They can keep in the fridge or freezer for up to 2 weeks.
If you don’t just want to eat them by the handful, how about…
-In between 2 layers of the creamiest chocolate chia pudding
-Or kick those clusters right off and bring the bits to this nicecream party
-I wouldn’t tell if you replaced the fruit with cookie dough in this breakfast jar
-Or maybe as a topping to this crazy ice cream concoction
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Sprinkle-able cookie dough. What?!?! This is something I’ve never thought of before, but now I can’t imagine a world without it. Plus, it’s made with everything I love! Such a fun, delicious concept to top any dessert (or any food, period – what can’t be improved with cookie dough?!). So simple but looks so, so yummy! It’s definitely looking like a topping to keep on hand on the regular, for ya know, those days you just need some cookie dough to get you through. Looks amazing, Natalie! 🙂
Right!?! Cupcakes, ice cream, smoothies–my imagination is running wild with all the things that could use a sprinkling of cookie dough now. Hmmm would it be weird to put cookie dough on top of a cookie? Maybe but now I kinda have to try now it to know? I seem to have this recurring problem of making these and then eating them by the handful before I have a chance to try out all the possibilities–oops! But sometimes just a handful of cookie dough is exactly what a monday needs. Thanks girl!
I can’t stop eating these past few days so have been trying to find some more healthy recipes to snack on and this looks PERFECT! Also, I love the whole concept of sprinkable cookie dough <3 Game changer!
I am wishing I had some of your marvelous ice cream flavors around for testing this stuff out on each and every one! I hope it helps with the snacking situation. Ah the double edged sword of food blogging–so many treats around for snacking but sometimes too many not super healthy treats around for snacking?
Is it wrong that I want to dive right into the third photo? It is the most gorgeous bird’s eye view of the most edible mountain I’ve ever seen… Can we please put this recipe on the list of things to make when we meet up? I totally cannot remember the epically long acronym we decided upon for that list, but you know what I’m getting at. 😉 You know that I’m a HUGE fan of cookie dough, so this recipe is doing so many things for my appetite right now. Can we see these bits on like ALL the future recipes from now on? 😉 LOVE these pics, my dear lady bird. Chat soon! xoxo
I feel like I should go all lifeguard mode and tell you that photo number three is not deep enough to safely dive into…but then again ahh heck just go for it!! The ice cream will cushion your landing, you’ll be fine? Oh THE list. How long is it now–around the world 3 times or 4?? I’ll just make the last pic of every post XXX + cookie dough bits on top–good plan! Yay can’t wait <3 xoxo
COOKIE SPRINKLES 🙂 !!!!! How on earth have I survived without these?! I add sprinkles to everything (as you might know 😉 ) but have never thought of a simple recipe like this. THANK YOU for sharing this. My life is now complete 🙂 ps love the irresistible photos <3
I was totally giggling at our sprinkle synchronicity!! Although very different flavors and for topping very different dishes, homemade sprinkles just make food more fun 🙂 And prettier! Thanks for the sweet comment Tiina <3
This is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I love your creative recipes, Natalie! I can’t wait to make this and sprinkle it over everything!
Haha thanks Nisha! And sliced bread doesn’t even make for a good ice cream topping so…? Hope you get a chance to try them!
Oh my word! This looks incredible. And possible a new pantry staple? I could see these cookie crumbs going onto a lot of dishes in my future <3 Just lovely, Natalie
Thank you Sophie, they certainly have become a regular in my topping stash! I just keep dreaming up new things to put them on/in, so yes definitely endless cookie dough-ifying possibilities 🙂
What could I replace the oat flour with – almond flour? Cashew flour? Chestnut flour? Cassava flour? Tigernut flour? I guess anything since its raw but have you or anyone 🙂 tried anything else?
Yep, any of them will work. The nut flours will probably require a little more than 1/4 cup since they aren’t as dry as oat flour. Cassava would be fine. Coconut would be fine. I haven’t ever worked with tigernut or chestnut, but they would work too just adjust the amount as needed to get the same texture 🙂
this topping is not just for ice cream! I think it would be amazing on toast, oatmeal, in a PB sandwich…..the list goes on and on! Or just by the handful to 😉
Omg I need to steal your brain for a minute because those ideas all sound SO good!! Especially the PB sandwich one, I never would’ve thought of that. Plus it counts as lunch that way 😉 No wonder everything you post is crazy amazing and ingenious!!
Mmm they look lovely and chewy, perfect nana ice cream and smoothie topping 😀
I’m pretty sure nana ice cream was made for them and they were made for nana ice cream–it’s a perfect match? Thanks Nadia!
Omg, these are just way too cute Natalie! I can imagine these on oh, about a million different things! Ice cream, pudding, cake, brownies, haha, the list goes on! And of course the chocolate chips are a must and make these cookie dough bits even more yummy! This could totally pass as snacking like you would do with granola! I put granola in Olivia’s lunch boxes for her snack time and she could totally snack on these as well, very happily. That second shot is totally dreamy. I pretty much want to just jump threw my screen and dive into like you would a bunch of balls, lol!
My mind just keeps coming up with new ways to use them and reading the comments with other’s ideas has been awesome too! Your last comment about chocolate chips vs cookie dough in oatmeal then got me thinking about trying them in pancakes or waffles…hmmm may have to try that. Oooh yes or even mixed with other bite sized things like a trail mix almost–that’s a great idea! See never ending uses 😀
I don’t know, a giant bliss ball doesn’t sound so bad! Hehe!! I do know how that goes though – I’ve ended up with a big old date ball before! But this cookie dough looks oh so addicting…and so simple. Willow has been going through a Lara bar kick these days, especially the ones with chocolate chips (ok, ONLY the ones with chocolate chips) – so this is so perfect for her! I’m going to play around with this recipe and try using tigernut flour for me – I’m excited! These photos are so dreamy; Natalie!
The ones with the chocolate chips are the only ones worth my time haha! But really I do always gravitate towards the chocolate chip flavors too…funny that. So giant ball of larabar or tiny bits of larabar, either way it goes sounds pretty good and hopefully Willow approved 🙂 And I finally finally just ordered tigernut flour–I’m excited!!
Natalie!! I made this today using tigernut flour and it’s SO good!! Currently chilling in my freezer waiting to be used with some ice cream or tomorrow’s smoothie bowl…I had to put it away because I kept sneaking bites. As soon as I get some cashew butter I’ll make the oatmeal for Willow! Love your recipes, friend ❤
You did?? YAYYYYY!!!!! And I am so happy to hear it worked with tigernut flour, I can’t wait to get mine even more now so I can try it. I imagine it would work with just about any flour, just a little something to tame all that date-stickiness. Thank you so very much for trying it and for the always lovely feedback?
Who DOESN’T want to sprinkle a little cookie dough everywhere they go? Seriously, this stuff looks amazing! Gotta try it out!
Right!?! Like fairy dust but in cookie form 🙂 Thanks Karly!
Okay STOP THE BUS! What? Sprinkle Cookie Dough? I want to peek inside your creative right brain, just for a minute…I now can’t stop thinking of all the places I could sprinkle this…parfaits, smoothies, parfaits, smoothie bowls, parfaits, raw cakes….Seriously I LOVE this recipe, and I love your cautionary warnings on how to achieve texture. One question, can I use cacao nibs instead of chips?
I bet it will add a bitter chocolate flavor, no?
Until you respond, I will continue dreaming where I can sprinkle these…cookies, bliss balls, my spoon…
Dee xx.
Oooh yes, cacao nibs would be delish in here! I love the bitter chocolate flavor of those little guys, especially next to the super sweetness of the dates? Haha I know right, derange up all the possibilities is half the fun! Thanks for checking them out Dee and all the lovely comments <3
Cookie dough sprinkles…. why haven’t I thought of that?? ? I can think of lots of places to put it to use… especially looking at it on top of all that whipped frosting looking thing. I think *need* cookie dough sprinkles!
Anything creamy/whipped/spoon-worthy really is the perfect spot for these little guys to be sprinkled on top! Oooh and thinking of all your beautiful cakes now I’m imagining a cookie dough freezer cake too…?
Made these twice! I put dark chocolate chips in the cookies and semi sweet in the frosting. The second time was for a family gathering; and my grandfather had two. He asked why we were bothering to make dinner afterwards, as these cookies were all he wanted. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hahahaha I love it!! Dessert for dinner–your grandfather has the right idea I think? I am so happy you and your family liked them, thank you for the great feedback!
Wow love love!!! Will def. make these!
★★★★★
I just whipped up another batch a couple of days ago, nice cream without just isn’t the same. Enjoy!