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Stuffed Prunes or Dates
If large soft prunes are bought it is not necessary to soak them, just wash them in warm water and dry. Split open the side, take out the pit and stuff with nuts, raisins, fondant or a combination.
It is not necessary to wash dates bought in covered packages, just split and stuff and roll in granulated sugar.
A confection assembled rather than cooked, so the only real variables are the quality of the fruit and how well it is dried before stuffing.
- Dry the fruit properlyWater left on washed fruit will make any sugar coating dissolve into a sticky glaze. Blot well and let the fruit sit on a rack before filling.
- "Large soft prunes"The phrasing implies that harder, drier prunes of the day did need soaking; today's moist-pack dried plums do not. Split rather than cut through, and remove the pit as directed.
- FondantPresumably fondant made at home, cooked or uncooked. A quick substitute is confectioners' sugar worked with a little softened butter and a few drops of cream or citrus juice until it forms a stiff paste.
- Dates in covered packagesPackaged dates of the period were reasonably clean, which is why the recipe skips washing them; today's Medjools are often loose and sticky and benefit from a quick rinse and thorough drying, contrary to the instruction here.
- Nut choiceToasted walnut or pecan halves, or a whole blanched almond, hold their shape best. Toast and cool them first, or the residual warmth will soften the fruit.
- Sugar coatingGranulated sugar is traditional but slides off moist fruit; superfine sugar clings better, and a mix of sugar with a pinch of citrus zest suits dates well.
- Yield and keepingA pound of fruit will give somewhere around 30 pieces, depending on size. Store in a single layer between waxed paper in a tin at cool room temperature; refrigeration draws moisture to the surface.
Stuffed dried fruit belongs to the older tradition of the confectioner rather than the baker, and it is often said to appear in American cookbooks from the late nineteenth century onward under headings like "uncooked candies" or "home candies" — sweets a household could turn out without a sugar thermometer or a copper pan. Prunes and dates were both cheap, shelf-stable pantry staples in the period; California prunes in particular were a mass-market commodity by the 1920s, heavily advertised, and cookbooks worked hard to find uses for them beyond stewing. Filling a date with fondant and rolling it in sugar turned a plain dried fruit into something fit for a box or a party plate, and it needed no equipment at all. Similar confections are old across the Mediterranean and the Middle East, where dates stuffed with nuts or marzipan are long established.