Prep time: 4 hours Cook time: 20 mins Rest time: 10 mins Total time: 4 hrs 30 mins
Makes: 7-8 large cookies
Make it Dairy-Free and AIP: Use animal fat other than ghee or butter
These animal-based beef cookies are made with animal foods like beef, eggs, and ghee and are sweetened with only fruit.
What you need to make Animal-Based Beef Cookies
Ingredients:
- Ground beef
- Eggs (ASHLEY20 for 20% off)
- Pitted dates
- Grass-fed ghee (or butter)
- Sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
- Vanilla extract (optional)
- Cinnamon (optional)
Equipment:
Substitutions
You can substitute the ghee (or butter) for your animal fat of choice, although I do highly recommend ghee with this recipe due to its sweet and buttery flavor.
How to make Animal-Based Beef Cookies
Dehydrate the beef.
Cook the ground beef in your cooking pan on the stovetop until done. Don’t add any fat while cooking.
Once the ground beef is cooked, drain out all of the fat.
Transfer the cooked ground beef to a plate. Pat the beef dry with a towel to soak up as much of the remaining fat as you can.
Transfer the ground beef on top of a piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet. Spread the pieces out in as thin of a layer as possible to promote even baking.
Dehydrate the ground beef in the oven at 200 degrees for 3-4 hours. You may have to rotate the pieces while cooking. I usually swirl everything around with a fork every 30 minutes or so or when I remember. The pieces should be hard and crunchy when done. I typically keep an eye on mine at about the 2-hour mark. Mine was done right around 3 hours.
Prepare the dates.
Soak the pitted dates in water for 1-2 hours to get them soft.
Note: use 9 oz (about 1.5 cups) of dates if you like your cookies on the sweeter side, and 6 oz (about 1 cup) if you don’t want them as sweet. I used 9 oz and it was perfect for my taste.
Make the cookie dough.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In your blender, grind the dehydrated ground beef into a powder and set aside in your mixing bowl.
Scoop the ghee (or butter) into a glass container (or whatever you’re using to melt it) on the stovetop. Melt the ghee (or butter) until it is liquid.
Place the melted ghee (or butter), eggs, sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off), vanilla extract (if using), cinnamon, and soaked dates into your blender and blend until smooth.
Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I’m so happy we did!
Add the blended mixture to your mixing bowl with the dehydrated beef.
Fold the dehydrated ground beef into the blended mixture. The dough should be thick like normal cookie dough.
Bake the cookies.
Place a new piece of parchment paper onto your baking sheet, and form the dough into cookies.
Note: these cookies do not rise or spread, so you will need to form the dough pre-baking into whatever shape you prefer them to end up in.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Once the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for about 10 minutes.
These cookies taste good fresh, but I (and my other taste-testers) all preferred them out of the fridge. Enjoy!
Store leftovers (if there are any!) in an airtight container on the counter or in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Tips to make the best Animal-Based Beef Cookies
- Don’t skip on soaking the dates. It makes a big difference.
- These cookies do not rise or spread, so you will need to form the dough pre-baking into whatever shape you prefer them to end up in.
A few of my other favorite sweet eats:
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Animal-Based Beef Cookies
Animal-Based Beef Cookies
Equipment
- Blender
- Baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (as lean as possible)
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup ghee (or butter)
- 1-1.5 cups (6-9 oz) pitted dates
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (optional, but recommended)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off)
Instructions
If a visual will help, watch the Instagram Reel for this recipe.
Dehydrate the beef.
- Cook the ground beef in your cooking pan on the stovetop until done. Don't add any fat while cooking.
- Once the ground beef is cooked, drain out all of the fat.
- Transfer the cooked ground beef to a plate. Pat the beef dry with a towel to soak up as much of the remaining fat as you can.
- Transfer the ground beef on top of a piece of parchment paper on your baking sheet. Spread the pieces out in as thin of a layer as possible to promote even baking.
- Dehydrate the ground beef in the oven at 200 degrees for 3-4 hours. You may have to rotate the pieces while cooking. I usually swirl everything around with a fork every 30 minutes or so or when I remember. The pieces should be hard and crunchy when done. I typically keep an eye on mine at about the 2-hour mark. Mine was done right around 3 hours.
- Once the beef is fully dehydrated, remove the beef pieces from the oven and let them cool.
Prepare the dates.
- Soak the pitted dates in water for 1-2 hours to get them soft.
- Note: use 9 oz (about 1.5 cups) of dates if you like your cookies on the sweeter side, and 6 oz (about 1 cup) if you don’t want them as sweet. I used 9 oz and it was perfect for my taste.
Make the cookie dough.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In your blender, grind the dehydrated ground beef into a powder and set aside in your mixing bowl.
- Scoop the ghee (or butter) into a glass container (or whatever you're using to melt it) on the stovetop. Melt the ghee (or butter) until it is liquid.
- Place the melted ghee (or butter), eggs, sea salt (ASHLEYR for 15% off), vanilla extract (if using), cinnamon, and soaked dates into your blender and blend until smooth.
- Note: if you go through tons of salt in your household like we do, check out this salt purchasing hack that will save you money + make things more efficient. We started this last year, and I'm so happy we did!
- Add the blended mixture to your mixing bowl with the dehydrated beef.
- Fold the dehydrated ground beef into the blended mixture. The dough should be thick like normal cookie dough.
Bake the cookies.
- Place a new piece of parchment paper onto your baking sheet, and form the dough into cookies.
- Note: these cookies do not rise or spread, so you will need to form the dough pre-baking into whatever shape you prefer them to end up in.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
- Once the cookies are done, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for about 10 minutes.
- These cookies taste good fresh, but I (and my other taste-testers) all preferred them out of the fridge. Enjoy!
- Store leftovers (if there are any!) in an airtight container on the counter or in the fridge for 2-3 days.
What I used for this recipe:
Looking for some more easy sweet eats? Try one of these recipes:
Jumbo Chocolate Cups with Salted Chunky Date Filling
Flourless Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting me!
Ashley Rothstein develops tasty, whole food, animal-based recipes that include a moderate amount of “minimally toxic” plant foods. To fix her own health issues, she bounced around between the carnivore, keto, and paleo diets for a few years. After experiencing and studying each diet philosophy, she learned she feels her best by merging the three and following an animal-based diet. As a glut at heart, she likes to channel her creativity and create meals that are healthy but also satisfy her inner gluttonous spirits.
Can I freeze? Was thinking of doubling the batch
Author
Yep!
Can you omit the dates?
Author
You can, but the texture would likely be too dry.