Date and Walnut Cookies
- Total Time
- 2 hours
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2½cups/350 grams all-purpose flour
- 1teaspoon/5 grams salt
- 1teaspoon/3 grams cinnamon
- ½teaspoon/1½ grams ground cloves
- 8ounces/2 sticks/227 grams soft unsalted butter
- 1½cups/300 grams light brown sugar
- 3large eggs, lightly beaten
- 1tablespoon/13 grams baking soda
- 1pound/450 grams chopped pitted dates
- 1pound/450 grams chopped walnuts or pecans
- Confectioners’ sugar
Nutritional analysis per serving (78 servings)
110 calories; 6 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 13 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 59 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line one or more baking sheets with parchment. Place flour in a bowl and whisk in the salt, cinnamon and cloves. Set aside.
- Step 2
Cream butter and brown sugar together by hand or in an electric mixer. Beat in eggs. The mixture will not be smooth. Dissolve the baking soda in 1 tablespoon hot water and stir it in. Stir in the dates and nuts. The batter will be heavy and not easy to mix. Work in the flour mixture, about a third at a time. If your electric mixer has a dough hook, use it for working in the flour.
- Step 3
Scoop heaping teaspoons of batter onto prepared baking sheet or sheets, making craggy mounds about 1½ inches in diameter. Space them about 1½ inches apart; the cookies will not spread very much. (Alternatively, for neater cookies, you can roll the batter into balls between your palms, then lightly press them down with the back of a spoon or the tines of a fork.) Allow to sit at room temperature 30 minutes to 1 hour before baking. Depending on the size of your oven and your baking sheets, you can form the cookies ready to bake on sheets of parchment paper on your countertop, then transfer them to baking sheets in shifts.
- Step 4
Bake 15 to 20 minutes, until nicely browned. Let cool, then dust with sifted confectioners’ sugar. If you plan to freeze some of the cookies, do not dust them with confectioners’ sugar; wait until after they thaw.
Private Notes
Comments
Halved the recipe, used 2 eggs. Substituted pastry flour and organic sugar. Result: chewy, moist, mmmmm.
I threw in an extra egg after reading Patti's comment. I also added a handful of dried cranberries. Loved the result.
I halved the recipe, using 2 full eggs, and used pecans. I brought them on a hike and handed them out to my fellow hikers. A very successful reception, including a request for the recipe. Even my husband, not a dessert person, liked them because they are not over-sweetened -- most of it comes from the dates.
Trigger warning ;) I made A LOT of changes, but they were mostly based on the comments I read, and I am fairly happy with them, so I think they are worth sharing. Like a lot of people, I halved the recipe while using two whole eggs. Used cardamom as the spice and replaced a third of the flour with oats. I didn't have dates, so I used dried figs, and I grated the zest of an orange and chopped a little bit of a 70%-cocoa chocolate bar. Made ice-cream scoop sized cookies and baked them for 20 min.
I will just add that my father was adamant that you need to chop the dates yourself - don't buy pre-chopped. Chopping dates is a more sure fire way to get them to melt into the dough (sort of like in sticky toffee pudding).
This is nearly identical to a recipe that's been in our family for well over 100 years. They're called "rocks" because, well, that's what they look like. They key difference is that our recipe involves separating the eggs, beating the egg whites to near stiff and folding them back in at the end. The result is a taller cookie with a nice sheen. My father made these every Christmas and loved them so much that we passed out the recipe at his memorial service. They're delicious.