1. Place the medjool dates into a small bowl and pour boiling water over them, just enough to completely submerge them. Allow 20 minutes to soften.  After 20 minutes, pinch them to make sure there is no pit.  Place the softened dates in a food processor or mini-chop to chop into fine pieces.  (They will be sticky).
2. In the meantime, measure out all your remaining ingredients.
3. Place the peanut butter, cocoa powder, maple syrup, softened-chopped dates, vanilla, sea salt, and plant milk into a small-medium sized saucepan. Stir and heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until completely blended, about 5 minutes. Make sure the chopped dates are separated and blended.  You will still see very tiny fragments of the chopped dates, but they should be evenly dispersed throughout the mixture. The mixture should be hot, shiny, and emulsified.
4. Place the rolled oats into a large bowl, then pour the heated chocolate-peanut butter mixture over the oats a little at a time, while constantly stirring the oats until all the oats are completely coated.
5. Then use a small cookie scoop (OXO Good Grips Small Stainless Steel Cookie Scoop – diameter is approx. 1 ¼ inches) and scoop up about a tablespoon of the cookie mixture, pressing the cookie scoop hard against the side of the bowl to compact the cookie mixture into the scooper. Then release the cookie from the scooper and hand roll into tightly formed balls and place the cookie ball onto a wax paper covered baking sheet to set.
6. If your cookie mixture is extra gooey, place in the fridge for 30 minutes, then scoop and roll the cookies.
7. Store in the fridge. Cookies freeze well too!

Variations:

• Unsweetened coconut flakes: After rolling the cookie into a ball, then roll into coconut flakes.
• Unsweetened cocoa powder: After rolling the cookie into a ball, very, very lightly shake some cocoa powder onto the cookie.  Caution:  Unsweetened cocoa powder has a strong flavor.  TEST one cookie before proceeding.
• Melted Chocolate Chips: Melt approx. ¼ cup of chocolate chips in the microwave or over a double boiler.  When the chips are completely melted, allow the mixture to cool slightly, then take a cookie ball and drop it into the melted chocolate; using two forks, move the cookie ball around to completely coat in chocolate, then place on a wire rack to cool.  When the chocolate starts to set, sprinkle with a few pieces of large sea salt flakes.  The chocolate coating can sometimes take up to an hour to set depending on the brand of chocolate you are using.
• Whole dried cherries: After making a cookie ball, press your thumb into the center of the cookie creating a hole.  Take a few cherries and cut them up, smashing them to make them gooey.  Then place one or two tiny pieces of the gooey cherry pieces inside the cookie hole, then place a whole cherry on top.  The cut-up gooey cherries act like glue to hold the whole cherry in place so it doesn’t fall out.