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Dates Stuffed with Marsh Mallows
Dates stuffed with marsh mallows are much liked. Carefully remove the pits from plum dates and fill the cavities with pieces of marsh mallow candies. One-third of a marsh mallow will fill a date. Another delicious stuffing for dates is a paste made of chopped peanuts, mixed with the white of an egg, powdered sugar, and a few drops of sherry. After the dates are filled with this mixture they may be rolled in fine sugar.
Two fillings are given here. The marshmallow version is straightforward confectionery; the peanut paste is bound with raw egg white and never cooked, which is why the caution above stands.
- The raw egg whiteThe peanut filling is mixed with uncooked egg white, rolled in sugar and eaten as-is, with nothing in the process that brings the egg above room temperature. A few drops of sherry contribute no meaningful antimicrobial effect at that dilution. The risk from Salmonella in intact shell eggs was not recognised when this was written; if you want an uncooked nut paste today, use a current recipe built around pasteurized egg product or no egg at all.
- Plum datesApparently a trade term of the period for the large, soft, fleshy dates sold whole rather than the small dry pressed ones. Medjool or large Deglet Noor stand in directly. Slit lengthwise along one side rather than cutting through, so the date closes back over the filling.
- Marshmallows have changed sizeThe one-third-of-a-marshmallow ratio suggests a marshmallow larger than a standard modern one, though sizes of the period are not well documented. With today's supermarket marshmallows, a half to a whole one per date may be closer; miniatures are simpler still.
- "Powdered sugar"In American books of this date the phrase usually means finely ground sugar without cornstarch, closer to today's superfine than to confectioners'. Either works in a nut paste, but confectioners' sugar will set firmer because of the starch.
- "Fine sugar" for rollingGranulated sugar ground fine, or superfine. It gives a slight crunch and keeps the sticky exterior from adhering to the plate; confectioners' sugar tends to dissolve into the moist surface of the date and vanish.
- Yield and servingA pound of large dates gives somewhere around 20 to 25 pieces, though the recipe specifies no quantity. Sweets of this kind were generally handled as an after-dinner or tea-table trifle rather than as a dessert course in themselves.
- KeepingMarshmallow-stuffed dates hold a day or two in a covered tin at cool room temperature; refrigeration makes the marshmallow weep. They should not be made far ahead.
Stuffed dates belong to the wave of American "dainties" that followed the arrival of cheap imported dates in the 1880s and 1890s, when Persian Gulf and North African fruit began reaching United States ports in quantity and dates moved from a costly novelty to a grocery staple sold loose by the pound. Marshmallow made the same journey at almost the same moment: the confection had originally been thickened with mucilage from the marsh mallow root, Althaea officinalis, but by the end of the nineteenth century commercial makers had largely replaced the root with gelatin and gum arabic, keeping only the name. That is why a book of this period can treat marshmallows as an ordinary shop-bought ingredient to be cut up and used as filling. Recipes of this kind are generally associated with the "dainty dishes" tradition, alongside salted nuts and bonbons, meant for the hostess assembling a tea table or a luncheon favor rather than for the kitchen proper.