This recipe starts the same way many of my recipes do: with dates and cacao. But the ending is up to you because there are SO many things you can top, bake, or make with these little chocolate bits. It’s a build your own chocolate chunk filled adventure situation.
Why bits? Because they’re not really chip-y. They’re not really chunk-y. They needed their own name, so Chocolate Bits!
Pulse, pulse, pulse! A few seconds too long in the food processor can turn your bits into a ball, so you gotta pulse and peek in often. Timing is everything. It might take 30 pulses, it might take 100 depending on your food processor and your dates. Those not-so-gooey dates that aren’t very snack-perfect, are great for this.
I made a short video so you can get a better idea of the pulsing process:
It you do over-process and end up with one giant chocolate ball, you can roll a bazillion tiny Chocolate Bits individually. It’s quite a finger workout.
Now while you’re waiting overnight for the Chocolate Bits to freeze, you can brainstorm about what delicious direction you want to take them…
Nicecream topping? In a muffin? In a cookie? In a pancake? In a granola bar? On top of a cupcake? As a poppable snack? Or bake them into this HCLF Chocolate Bit Cookie Cake!
HCLF Chocolate Bits
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 6 pitted medjool dates
- 1 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder
Instructions
- Add the dates and cacao powder to a food processor.
- Pulse your food processor repeatedly to break apart the dates and combine them with the cacao powder.
- Stop, take off the lid, and check on the bits often to make sure you don’t go to far and end up with one large ball. You want to stop when the pieces are small, but not yet clumping together.
- Transfer to a shallow container. Freeze overnight.
- Keep in the freezer.
This is going to be such a lovely addition to my sprinkly things hehe especially now that is getting warmer over here in the UK and I basically live on parfaits and nicecreams so anything sprinkly is most welcome! Cacao nibs move aside! I like that these are soft and sweet!Love the idea and simplicity! Great video so thorough!
Lol, a sprinkly things collection is very important! Parfaits are the best, for some reason layering things in a tall glass just seems more fun and fancy then throwing it in a bowl with all the toppings on top 🙂
Yeah!! A healthy chocolate addition to the treat arsenal. Thanks!
Another task for your multitasking little Ninja 🙂
Your timing with this recipe could not be better! I just decided to quit my chocolate chip addiction, so these little bits will fill the void nicely!
Chocolate chips are dangerous little things! It takes so much less commitment to grab a few of them than it does to actually open a chocolate bar, that they tend to disappear shockingly quick! I hope these help 🙂
If it wasn’t late already and everyone else asleep, I would go make them right NOW. They would be a perfect topping for my breakfast tomorrow. I just got a new bag of dried dates too and I have all kinds of cacao and cocoa powder at home…probably I’m going to make them tomorrow morning, depends on how much time I have! I love this kind of simple recipes, and I really wonder now why I never though of this myself 😉
Thanks Kat!! We’re so off on time zones, but at least you have all the ingredients on hand! Have you ever stopped halfway through making nicecream when it’s in tiny little pieces kind of like dippin’ dots? That’s where I got the idea, same concept but just while making raw brownies. Well if you do make them, let me know 🙂
I will! Btw. what kind of plugin do you use that I always get those neat emails that you replied? I really like that!
Here it is: https://wordpress.org/plugins/comment-reply-by-admins-notifier/
I love this little plugin, otherwise it’s hard to remember to go check back for a response. I want everyone to install it…or wordpress to just make it standard!
Thank you! Just installed it – such a simple and nice plugin 🙂 I had to do some tweaking though, because the English of the plugin author was not “ideal” – you might want to look into that too.
I just made your chocolate bits this morning and they were so so good!
Haha no it’s pretty terribly written, but I hadn’t though to change it in the coding. Thanks, just did that 🙂 Now when I comment on you posts I’ll get nice little emails too!! 😀
Ahhh! These look SO GOOD! I want to smother nice cream with them!!
Also I’m very impressed with how tidy and empty your freezer is lol! Mine is always so stuffed haha.
Hahaha I keep the fridge and freezer pretty neat, not sure why. But the pantry cabinets are a complete other story (a.k.a. total disaster!!) 😉 I’ve smothered a few bowls of nicecream with them and it was pretty awesome, but mostly I’ve just been eating them by the handful 😀
I think these need to be baked in some granola 😉
That would be pretty tasty! I’ll be baking them into something scrumptious tomorrow… 🙂
Love this idea! I bet they’d make a great crumble topping for a muffin or a coffee cake. Pinned!
Thanks! Yes, like a chocolate streusel!!! That’s a great idea 🙂
What an awesome idea, Natalie. Love these. And love the versatility of dates and cacao powder — seems like their use is truly never-ending 🙂
Thanks Audrey! As long as I have those two ingredients in the kitchen then it’s always possible to make something scrumptious 🙂
How can I modify this to make chocolate bars?
★★★★★
These are more soft and chewy, not crunchy like a bar. If you double the recipe, process it longer, and add some oats or nuts you could make a Larabar sorta bar though. Like this recipe: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/homemade-larabars-mint-chip-brownie/
Just made these! (for the third time due to trial and error haha). I don’t have a food processor, who am I, and found my nutribullet doesn’t chop them up but makes the *oh-so-lovely* giant date ball. I found I had to meticulously chop up the dates myself BUT so worth it! They taste exactly like chocolate chips! Thank you for such a wonderful creation!
★★★★★
Third times a charm! I’m really happy you like them though, and I’m sure those giant brownie ball attempts didn’t go to waste?
Is there a good gluten free substitute for the oats? My tummy doesn’t do well with them. Thanks!
Hmm so there aren’t any oats in this recipe, is there another recipe you had in mind?