Stuffed Dates
Soft dates stuffed with goat cheese and an almond, warmed in the oven and finished with honey and black pepper.
Photograph credit: Stuffed Dates (30297512218) by Ella Olsson from Stockholm, Sweden · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Making Stuffed Dates Ahead
Best warm. Keeps in the fridge for 2 days.
Making Stuffed Dates
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Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F. Toast the almonds in a dry pan for 2 minutes.
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Slit the dates, fill each with a teaspoon of goat cheese and an almond and close.
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Set on a tray and bake for 10 minutes until the cheese is soft.
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Drizzle with the honey and finish with the pepper. Serve warm.
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Tips for Success
- Use soft dates.
- Do not overfill.
- If your oven runs hot, check at 8 minutes.
- Toast the almonds first.
Behind the Recipe
Dates, goat cheese, almonds: three things and a tray. They are the kind of tapas that disappear faster than anything else on the table.
Buy soft, plump Medjool dates and check that the stones are out. If you buy them with stones, slit each date lengthways and remove the stone with the tip of a knife. Do not overfill. A teaspoon of cheese is enough, since the date must still close around it.
Press an almond into each portion of cheese, then close the date. The almond gives a crunch that makes the soft date and creamy cheese more interesting. Toasted almonds work better than raw, so toast them in a dry pan for 2 minutes first.
Warm the dates in the oven at 200°C / 390°F for 10 minutes, until the cheese is soft and the skins have wrinkled. If your oven runs hot, check at 8 minutes. Drizzle with honey and finish with black pepper. Serve warm, on a plate, with napkins.
What to Put Next to It
Sparkling wine · Dry sherry · Olives · Manchego
Stuffed Dates Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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