Dates & Walnuts Dipped in Chocolate

I want to pack these stuffed dates in their lunch boxes for a snack, but I know they won’t eat them. I’ve tried sending dried fruits and nuts before, but they came back. Alex accused me of ruining his life. He claims that eating cockroach-looking dried fruit at recess is beyond embarrassing. I thought bugs were cool.
I hear you, son. If my mother had tried to send me one of those Moroccan marzipan-stuffed dates in my lunchbox, instead of choco (a popular Israeli chocolate-milk-in-a-plastic-bag), I would have been absolutely mortified. 


Did I really think that covering dates with chocolate would make them less hostile and more kid-friendly? The only way to make them more appealing to those store-bought-snack-deprived boys would be to commercially package them in a noisy wrapper. They claim that they are the only ones in school who don’t have a real snack. A “real snack,” ironically, means “in a crinkly bag,” like potato chips, Doritos, or a yucky, overly sweet granola bar. So I say, “Well…When you are eighteen, you can eat whatever you want,” or, “No wonder most of the kids now are overweight.”
If you add a dash of salt and ground coffee beans to the chocolate, you’ll have a serious treat. Keep in mind that the dates are very sweet, so it’s better to coat them in very dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa). You can stuff them with any nut of your choice – pecan, almond, or hazelnut (toasted is tastier).

Stuffed dates dipped in dark chocolate

Author: Shelly

Ingredients

  • 10 small Medjool dates or other dates (If the date is the large Medjool kind, you can dip only half of it)
  • Walnuts - 10 halves
  • 3.5 oz. about 1 cup dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
  • Sea salt

Instructions

  • Line a plate with parchment paper.
  • Roughly break the chocolate and put it in a double boiler – in a bowl over a saucepan filled with 1 cup of water, over medium-low heat. DO NOT stir the chocolate. Sprinkle a tiny bit of salt and cook until the chocolate is melted.
  • Make a lengthwise slit in the dates and remove their pits. Stuff each date with a walnut and tighten it around the nut so the nut stays in.
  • Transfer the melted chocolate into a medium, deep bowl. Dip each date in the chocolate – you can use chopsticks, tongs or a toothpick to grab it – and place it on the lined plate.
  • Put the plate in the fridge until the chocolate is solid – about 20 minutes.

If you have leftover melted chocolate, you can make these. All you have to do is dot a heaping teaspoon of chocolate on a baking sheet, top with hazelnuts and refrigerate until the chocolate is solid, about  20 minutes. 

Medjool bugs
 
 

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