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Cocoanut Dates
1 dozen stoned dates 3 English walnuts 2 tablespoons shredded cocoanut 2 tablespoons icing Insert one-half of a walnut meat in the date. Dip in thin icing and roll in shredded cocoanut.
A no-cook confection that comes together in ten minutes, though the quantities in the original do not quite line up.
- The walnut count is shortThree English walnuts yield six half-kernels, not the twelve the dozen dates require. Buy shelled walnut halves and count out twelve, or double the nuts.
- "English walnuts"The ordinary walnut sold everywhere today, as distinct from the American black walnut; the recipe specifies the type because both were in use. Black walnuts would work but are far stronger in flavour.
- "Stoned" datesPitted. Slit each one lengthwise rather than cutting through, so the fruit closes back around the nut. Medjools are large and soft enough to need no soaking; drier Deglet Noor dates benefit from ten minutes in warm water, then a thorough pat dry.
- Thin icingThe original measures the finished icing, not the sugar: confectioners' sugar slackened with a few drops of water or milk to the consistency of thin cream. It should coat the date and run off, not sit on it in a layer. Two tablespoons is barely enough for twelve dates; mix three or four.
- Shredded cocoanutShredded coconut of the period was generally drier and often unsweetened compared with most bagged sweetened flake today. Unsweetened desiccated or flaked coconut keeps the sweetness in check, since dates and icing supply plenty.
- SettingRoll each date in coconut as soon as it is dipped, then leave on parchment for an hour so the icing firms. They keep several days in a tin between layers of waxed paper.
- YieldTwelve pieces, enough for four as a small sweet with coffee.
Stuffed dates were a fixture of American home confectionery in the first decades of the twentieth century, when imported dates from North Africa became cheap and reliable in grocery stores. They belonged to the same category as salted nuts and candied peel: things a household could turn out without a candy thermometer and set beside the coffee.