Chocolate Macaroons - a raw version

You may already be thinking "Raw, ewe!" but its not that kind of raw. These Chocolate Macaroons are super tasty, easy to make and do I dare venture to say almost healthy. This cookie recipe is out of Raw Food Real World, I've made one small adjustment. These are prepared using the raw food method, they are not baked only heated at a low tempereture. For this reason they retain most of their nutrients. Raw food purists would say that these are not truly a raw food because some of the ingredients that go into them such as maple syrup, cocoa powder and vanilla extract are heated during processing. This recipe is great because it has no dairy, eggs or wheat, and makes for a great chocolate fix. I use dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder because it is what I have on hand. You can take raw cacoa nibs - which are available in health food stores and grind them in a coffee grinder to get a less processed cocoa powder. There is also a blonde version of these cookies that just substitutes almond flour for the cocoa powder. Without further adu here it is:

3 cups dried, unsweetened coconut flakes
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
1 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup coconut butter
1 Tb. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3/4 cup chopped dried cherries (optional/my contribution)

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir well to combine. ( I use a standing mixer with the paddle attachment.)
2. Using a small ice-cream scoop, your hands, or a big tablespoon, spoon rounds of the dough onto dehydrator screens or a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. The recipe calls to dehydrate at 115 F for twelve to twentyfour hours. However the first time I made this recipe I didn't have a food dehydrator so I just turned the oven to warm, the lowest setting and checked on the cookies (by eating one and they were all good) every couple hours over the course of the afternoon. By evening they were crispy to my liking. This past time I used the food dehydrator and they were done after six hours. The point of heating them is just to get them crispy on the outside but still nice and chewy on the inside. They don't have raw eggs, or anything else that has to be cooked.