With Easter weekend upon us, I thought I would delight you with a simple yet delicious recipe for stuffed dates that happen to make an excellent, healthy alternative to chocolate Easter eggs! For that reason, I was hoping to publish this recipe a little earlier but my laptop decided to take a spontaneous Easter break too sadly…

Not to worry because these stuffed dates bonbons are very simple to make and keep well too so there is no reason not to make them after Easter too. The recipe uses natural, wholefood ingredients and is perfect for when you want something subtly sweet but don’t want to reach for chocolates and biscuits that have been deliberately optimised to make your tastebuds crave more and more. I have been enjoying these little treats and I hope you will too.

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

DATES: Use large juicy dates – like Medjool dates – for these. Their sweet, caramel-like flavour and meaty tender rather than fibrous flesh makes them divine to eat. Of course, you can use any dates you like but larger ones will allow you to stuff them more generously.

NUT BUTTER: Any nut or seed butter will work well, but ideally you want to pick something thick rather than drippy. I used dark roast chunky peanut butter as that’s what I enjoy. If your nut butter is not thick, you can thicken it with finely ground nuts of these same type or neutral protein power or you could freeze filled dates until the filling thickens enough to allow you to dip the dates in chocolate without losing any filling.

DARK CHOCOLATE: I used 70% cocoa dark cooking chocolate to coat these. Use any chocolate you enjoy.

NUTS OF CHOICE: In order to make these treats look more visually appealing you want to sprinkle them with finely chopped nuts that matches the flavour of the filling or not, it’s up to you. You could also decorate them with something else, like melted white chocolate drizzled on top or freeze dried raspberries, for example.

HOW TO MAKE IT?

1) REMOVE THE PIT

First off, you want to remove the pit to make room for the filling. Ideally, you don’t want to cut the date all the way lengthwise as it makes it more likely that the filling, especially if a little runny, will ooze out. Use a small pairing knife to make a small slit from where the stalk came out to about two thirds of the date’s length and a pop the stone out using a small teaspoon.

2) STUFF THE DATES

Use another spoon to fill the dates with your favourite nut or seed butter. I used dark roast chunky peanut butter for my stuffed dates. If your nut or seed butter is a bit runny, you can either thicken it or place stuffed dates in the freezer so that the filling gets thicker before you dip the dates in chocolate. To thicken your nut or seed butter you can either mix some finely ground nuts or seeds into it (ideally the same type as your butter is made out of) or maybe vanilla flavoured protein powder if you have some handy.

3) DIP IN CHOCOLATE

Next, coat stuffed dates in chocolate. Place each date in the melted chocolate cut side up and use a teaspoon to drizzle melted chocolate over the top until the entire stuffed date is enrobed in a layer of silky dark chocolate. Use a fork to lift each coated date out of the melted chocolate so that excess chocolate can drip off into the bowl. Place chocolate covered date on a piece of baking paper.

4) DECORATE

The final step is to decorate the date with chopped nuts or seeds while the chocolate coating is still wet. And finally, wait until the chocolate is fully set – fridge speeds this up – before enjoying irresponsibly 🙂 .