Date Nut Pastries Food

MAAMOUL (DATE FILLED COOKIES)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.

DATE AND NUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper third and middle. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Add dates, pecans, and raisins, and stir with a wooden spoon until fruit and nuts are coated. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, oil, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. Add to flour mixture and stir until combined.
• In another small bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons, 1 inch apart, onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake until cookies are golden at edges, about 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks and let cool completely.

DATE NUT COOKIE PIES

Steps:

• To prepare the pastry, combine the flour, confectioners' sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of the cream and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Add more cream if necessary but stop before the dough is too wet. Tip half of the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and form it into a disk. Repeat with the remaining dough. Chill the disks for at least 2 hours.
• To prepare the filling, bring the dates and the water to a simmer over medium heat in a small saucepan. Cook until the dates are very soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer the dates and the water to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and add the pecans, walnuts, honey, orange zest, cardamom, cloves, and salt and pulse until you have a chunky paste. Let cool completely.
• Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Working with one disk at a time, roll the dough out to a thickness of 1/8 inch on a very lightly floured surface. (Less flour means a more tender cookie.) Using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and set them about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining disk. You can reroll the dough once if you like.
• Scoop about a rounded 1/2 teaspoon of filling onto half of the dough circles. Brush the edges of the filling-topped circles with a bit of cream and top with another dough circle, gently pressing the edges to seal. Once you've sandwiched all of the cookies, use a fork to crimp all of the edges.
• Chill the cookies until firm, about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Brush the top of each cookie with cream and sprinkle with a bit of sanding sugar. Bake until the cookies are golden and crisp, 25 to 30 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through. Let the cookies cool completely on a rack.
• Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

DATE NUT LOAF CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring dates and water to a boil. Stir in 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar until melted. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Let cool for 10 minutes.
• Place date mixture into a large bowl. Blend in flour, eggs and vanilla. Stir in chopped walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Serve slices with Warm Sauce.
• To make Warm Sauce: In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1/4 cup butter with cream and brown sugar. Heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and sugar is dissolved.

MA'AMOUL (MINIATURE DATE-NUT PASTRIES)

Steps:

• To make the filling, combine the dates, nuts, sugar, water and cinnamon in a medium saucepan over low heat. Cook until the dates are soft and the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Let cool.
• To make the dough, sift the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt. Gently stir in the butter. Add the rose water and enough milk to make the dough adhere without being crumbly, mixing just to combine.
• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Separate the dough into walnut-size pieces, about 1 1/4 inch long by 1 inch wide. Take 1 piece and gently roll it into a ball between your palms. Then make an indentation with your thumb, pinching the sides up to make a large thimble shape. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Fill the hollows with a scant teaspoon of the filling. Press the dough back over the filling to make a ball. Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand and place all of them on a greased baking sheet.
• Decorate the top of each pastry with the tines of a fork -- straight lines are traditional. Bake for about 30 minutes; do not let the pastries brown. Let cool. Roll them in confectioners' sugar and store in an airtight tin.

DATE-NUT PASTRIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F. Lightly grease baking sheet.
• Let pie crust stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Unfold piecrust, and cut crust into 8 wedges. (If using crescent roll type dough, sprinkle a little flour, on a clean flat surface. Lay down dough. And, sprinkle a little flour on, the top side of the dough. Flatten dough slightly, with a rolling pin. If rolling causes perforations to seal, take a sharp knife to cut the dough, in that area.) Spread about 1 tablespoon of the date filling, near the wide end of each wedge. If using orange peel, put it on date filling, before putting on pecans. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of chopped pecans atop the filling on each wedge. Starting at the wide end, roll up each wedge.
• Place, point down, on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle pastries with sugar. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until golden. Serve warm. Makes 8 servings.

INA GARTEN DATE NUT SPICE BREAD

Steps:

• In a bowl combine dates and orange liqueur and "marinate" for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Preheat oven to 350.
• Prepare loaf pan (8x5); butter bottom, line with parchment paper, butter again and flour.
• Sift together flour, and next 6 ingredients. Set aside.
• Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar for 1 minute. Then, at low speed, add egg, vanilla, and orange zest. Add flour mixture alternately with orange juice. Beat only until combined.
• Mix in pecans and dates with liquid by hand.
• Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.
• To make the orange cream cheese, add add ingredients together and combine with electric mixer.

DATE COOKIES LIKE AWREY'S

Steps:

• Mix filling ingredients in saucepan. Cook til smooth. (Raspberry or strawberry jam may also be used as filling.)
• Mix cookie ingredients as if for a pie crust.
• Pat one half of the mixture on a buttered (8x8x2 inch) pan.
• Press down firmly and spread on the filling.
• Cover with the other half of the oatmeal mixture and press down lightly.
• Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes. Cut into squares.

DATE NUT BALLS OR PIE CRUST!

Steps:

• Grind pecans, walnuts, and dates in a food processor until well chopped and blended. Add honey and continue to process until the mix forms a ball. Be careful not to overprocess.
• Pie Crust:.
• Press into bottom and sides of a pie pan before adding filling. Reserve some of the mix to crumble on top of finished pie. Fresh fruit makes a great filling, also a yogurt or tofu "cheesecake" is yummy!
• Balls:.
• Use as is or add 1 teaspoons cinnamon and/or 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg or 1 tbls. carob powder or 1-2 tbls. orange zest.
• Roll the dough into balls, then in flaked coconut, ground nuts or carob powder. Have fun and enjoy!