Mediterranean Cookies

I came across this recipe and I was very interested. I don’t find too many recipes with dates, and this recipe combined dates, coconut, and nuts, which sounded amazing. I cut this recipe in half, since the quantities listed here made a lot of cookies. Even a half recipe made about 3 dozen cookies.

This recipe called for walnuts, which makes sense as that is what you’d find in the Mediterranean, but I prefer pecans. Just use what you have! Coconut also varies a lot, as there is sweetened and unsweetened, larger and smaller shreds. I use unsweetened coconut, that is shredded very small. This is what is found in the UK, and I find that since it is dry to start with, it lasts longer.

These came together easily and I was really happy with how they looked when they came out of the oven. I let them cool and ate one, and something was…off. Something tasted stale. The oats? The nuts? The dates? I am quite sure the dates were too old. I remade them with newer dates and that made all the difference! With the proper ingredients, these cookies were lovely, and I even forgot to top them with a dusting of powdered sugar!

Mediterranean Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts/pecans)
1 cup flaked coconut
8 ounces chopped dates
Powdered sugar

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix on medium until smooth. Add the vanilla, olive oil, and eggs and mix to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and oats. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flout/oat mixture and stir until combined.

Switch to a spatula and fold in the chopped nuts, coconut, and chopped dates, stirring until the ingredients are incorporated evenly throughout the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2” balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Recipe from South Your Mouth

Oatmeal Date Smash Cookies

I am a big fan of King Arthur Baking, and have even taken a couple of classes from them at their location in Skagit Valley. They came up with a list of fall bakes and I noted down quite a few of those recipes! One was this oatmeal date cookie, and I hadn’t baked with dates in a while. I wasn’t familiar with “smash” cookies, but you partially bake them and then smash them down with a spatula and then finish baking.

While I didn’t change the ingredients in these cookies, I did change the size of the cookies. The original recipe called for making the cookies 80 grams, and the entire recipe only made 8 cookies. Those would be really huge cookies! I knew I wanted to make more regular sized cookies, so I made the cookies 25 grams, which yielded 28 cookies. 

Changing the size also impacted the baking time, which initially was to bake for 15 minutes, then smash the cookies, then return them to a turned-off oven for 5 minutes. Well that works for 8 cookies, but not in my case. I kept the oven on the entire time, baked for 8-9 minutes, smashed them, then baked for a couple more minutes, which made for lovely golden cookies. The combination of oats and dates is perfect for this time of year, when the weather starts to turn (and all you want to do is stay home and bake).

Oatmeal Date Smash Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup coarsely chopped dates

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add the egg and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, add the flour mixture and stir until the flour almost disappears. Stir in the dates, making sure the dough comes together.  

Shape the cookies: divide the dough into balls, each weighing about 25 grams. Place on a parchment-lined tray. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least several hours.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. 

Place the chilled dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, leaving room between each cookie. I found that placing 10 cookies on each sheet allowed for plenty of room. 

Bake for 9 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and smash/flatten the cookies with a spatula. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional 2-3 minutes, until golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from King Arthur Baking

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies

I really need to get back in the swing of baking, but now that my schedule is getting back to normal, I am very hopeful that will happen. My husband sent me this recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies, as he knows that we both love sticky toffee pudding. He asked if I had dates, a critical ingredient, and I did. I typically buy chopped dates, since dates are so sticky, but I had whole dates. For this recipe, that was fine as it all goes into the food processor.

This is a different method of making cookies than I am used to. You mix the flour in the mixer bowl and then handle the wet ingredients in the food processor, then mix the two together to make a dough. It worked fine, although I think if you quizzed someone about whether these contain dates, they may not know as they aren’t obvious.

I used fairly small caramels that I had bought at a local fair, which were about 2 centimeters square. I cut them in half and that was great for these cookies. If you have larger caramels, then adjust accordingly. You are supposed to roll the dough balls in sugar, but I forgot and they seemed to turn out fine. These taste so much like sticky toffee pudding, with the wonderful dates and the spices, and the caramel adds that sticky element that makes it that much more special.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cookies
235 grams flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon grated nutmeg
85 grams dates, roughly chopped
67 grams sugar
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
170 grams butter, melted and cooled slightly
Soft caramels, cut in pieces

In a large mixer bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg; set aside. In a food processor, combine the dates, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, egg, and vanilla. Pulse until smooth (or nearly smooth). Add the butter and pulse again, until the ingredients come together.

Add the date mixture to the flour mixture in the mixer bowl. With the mixer running on medium-low, stir until the dough comes together, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as needed. Once the dough forms, refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 24 balls, each about 1-1/2” inches. Place a piece of caramel into the top of each cookie, flattening the dough slightly.

Bake for 8-9 minutes, until the cookie looks set. The caramel will be molten at this point, so be careful. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Hailee Catalano

Sticky Toffee Spice Cookies

Sticky Toffee Pudding is a classic British dessert, but I suppose this time of year it is more common to have a Christmas pudding with a festive meal. I like both, but honestly, you can’t eat too much Christmas pudding as it is so rich. One time when my husband and I were in England we went to Betty’s Tearoom and got a Christmas pudding. It was absolutely wonderful, and it is traditional to light it afire. Nothing says Christmas like lighting something on fire!

I love Sticky Toffee Pudding just as much, although it uses dates rather than a mixture of dried fruits. I did have chopped dates (because you certainly don’t want to cut dates yourself!) but I had the mix of dried fruits used for fruitcake right on the counter, so I used that. The fruitcake blend has a lot of dates, so I figured I would be good. This recipe is flexible so you can use what is available to you.

I also changed the spices somewhat. I don’t like cardamon, so I used ginger instead. I also used Chinese Five-Spice in place of garam masala. Again, use what you like! I ended up making a double batch of these, about 60 cookies, so my husband could take some to a lunch gathering at work. These cookies are SO GOOD! They do taste like the holidays, and they were good with the mixed dried fruit. I’m glad there were a lot of these left, as they are tasty and you just keep eating them.

Sticky Toffee Spice Cookies
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon Chinese Five-Spice
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup toffee bits
1/2 cup caramel bits
1/2 cup chopped dates (or dried fruit)

1/2 cup white chips
1 teaspoon shortening

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place the oats into a food processor and finely grind the oats. Combine the oats in a medium bowl with the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and the Chinese Five-Spice.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the egg, molasses, and vanilla and stir until blended, about one minute. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the oat/flour mixture. Fold in the pecans, toffee bits, caramel bits, and dates with a spatula.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2” balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until beginning to brown along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the drizzle: in a small microwave-safe bowl, combine the white chips and shortening. Melt in the microwave, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cookies.

Recipe from Go Bold with Butter

Date Nut Bars

I feel like any recipe that uses dates has a hint of the old-fashioned. Dates are a fabulous thing and I have visited a date farm in California, but they don’t seem to be used in recipes all that much. I do see dates in different British recipes, and I had purchased some dates for some fudge I was making. I wanted to use the remaining dates before they got hard, so I decided on these date nut bars.

The original recipe calls these Chinese Chews, and as previously mentioned, they are a classic 1917 recipe from the blogger’s grandmother. I’m not sure if there is any Chinese connection to these cookies, or if that’s just a name that was used, so I am going to call these simply date nut bars. They are very simple, and I made the recipe with one bowl and no mixer. I didn’t want to overwork the dough, so that seemed like a good recommendation from the original baker.

In the original recipe, it goes into quite a lot of detail in how to cut up dates. Dates are about the stickiest thing on earth, and my solution to this is to but chopped dates. They may not stay fresh quite as long, but anything is worth not having to chop dates! I made the dough in the time it took to heat up my lunch, and then they baked for 35 minutes. So easy. These bars are classic, and I feel like dates are forgotten for the most part in the realm of baking. That’s really unfortunate because dates are hard to beat!

Date Nut Bars
½ cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounces diced, pitted dates
1 cup chopped nuts
Powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar. Once combined, add the eggs and the vanilla, and whisk to incorporate. Switch to a spatula and add the flour and salt. When the flour is almost fully incorporated, add the diced dates and chopped nuts and stir to combine.

Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan. The dough is sticky, and I found that spreading the dough with my damp hands worked best.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden and set along the edges. Allow the bars to cool in the pan, and then lift from the pan by the aluminum foil. Peel away the foil and dust the top of the bars with powdered sugar. Cut into squares when completely cool.

Recipe from Cooking with Mamma C

No-bake Date Almond Bars

Our weather quickly got warm in the Seattle area. I don’t know when we typically bring out the air conditioner, but we had to put it into action this week. Hopefully we will only have a couple of days that are so hot, as I really prefer the fresh air that the fan brings in. It’s been so warm, so there was no other choice. We’re trying to get our kitties to understand that our bedroom is cooler, but I don’t think they are all convinced.

This is a no-bake bar, which they call a slice. Calling the recipe a slice immediately tells me that this is not an American recipe. I did some more research and this recipe is from an Australian blogger. That makes sense, as a have a “Biscuits and Slices” cookbook that is also from Australia. Occasionally international recipes have ingredients that are too hard to find, but that isn’t the case. Sweetened condensed milk is easy to find, you just don’t use the entire can. I used Digestive biscuits (which Americans would call cookies) as they are classic. You can use any plain sweet cookie that you can find. I suppose shortbread would even work, but that would make these bars very rich.

I have the ingredients here in metric weights, which is honestly what I use most frequently. It boils down to about 1 cup of almonds and ¾ cup of chopped dates. My husband seemed to be pleased that there was some of the biscuits left. The original recipe says that these take about 10 minutes to make, but don’t believe that! It takes some time to chop the almonds and the dates are so sticky. They are quick though, if you don’t count the time for refrigeration. I made mine a day in advance and then just cut them when I needed them. These bars are excellent, and surprisingly have a very strong chocolate flavor. Although these are a no-bake, I can’t recommend them enough.

No-bake Date Almond Bars

130 grams roasted almonds

100 grams pitted dates

250 grams plain sweet cookies/biscuits

220 grams sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons golden syrup/honey

125 grams butter

250 grams chopped dark chocolate

2 tablespoons shortening

Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Roughly chop the almonds and dates and add to a large mixer bowl. Finely crush the cookies and add to the mixer bowl. In a medium bowl combine the sweetened condensed milk, golden syrup, and the butter. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Pour the sweetened condensed milk mixture into the large mixer bowl.

Mix on low until combined. Spread the mixture into the prepared pan. Refrigerate for one hour.

After an hour, make the topping: in a medium bowl combine the dark chocolate and shortening. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Top the cooled bars with the chocolate and smooth the top. Allow the chocolate to set before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Bake, Play, Smile

Bourbon Cake

This cake was a Kentucky bourbon cake, but I didn’t use Kentucky bourbon, so I’m just going to call it a bourbon cake. I mentioned recently that we went and had lunch in Woodinville, WA, which has tasting rooms for many of the wineries in the state. In addition to wineries, local distilleries have set up in the area. We visited Woodinville Whiskey Company and picked up some of their bourbon whiskey. It’s great stuff! 

My friend at work really likes bourbon and her birthday was coming up so I went looking for a bourbon cake. One thing I have noticed is that many cakes and cookies with alcohol contain so little that you can’t taste it. That’s ok, but this was one cake that I really wanted to taste the bourbon. I found a cake, and my husband found this one and I decided this would be great. I checked to make sure that my friend liked dates; you could always omit them if you wanted. And since this cake contains nearly a cup of bourbon, I figured you would be able to taste it!

This cake came together well, the batter was very light and fluffy. I baked mine the longer side of the baking time. Since I knew I was going to soak the cake in liquid, I wanted it to be cooked all the way through! The original recipe had you soak the cake in the cake, which I did. It made it very hard to remove the cake from the pan, so if you’d prefer to remove the cake from the pan first, that would certainly work. I added a simple glaze make with powdered sugar and some of the remaining soaking syrup (mainly to cover the fact that my cake didn’t come out the pan 100% cleanly.) Boy, this was a fantastic cake! Everyone loved it. I warned everyone that the cake contained quite a bit of uncooked alcohol, but no one seemed to mind.

Bourbon Cake

3 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1/3 cup bourbon

1/2 cup dates, chopped

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup bourbon

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons reserved bourbon soaking syrup

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter or spray with nonstick cooking spray a large Bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after adding each egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the vanilla.

In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and bourbon.  With the mixer running on low, add 1/3 of the flour and then half of the bourbon mixture. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and the remaining bourbon mixture. Finally, add the remaining flour mixture. Stir just until the flour is incorporated. Fold in the dates with a spatula. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and a thin knife inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  While the cake is cooling, make the bourbon soaking syrup.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the sugar and vanilla and stir. Remove the pan from the heat momentarily and add the bourbon. Return the pan to the heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. 

With the cake still in the pan, use a long, thin knife to poke holes in the cake. Pour ¾ of the soaking syrup over the cake, allowing the syrup to soak in. Allow the cake to cool completely. Reserve the remaining glaze. (Alternatively, you could remove the cake from the pan, poke holes in the cake and then pour the soaking syrup over the cake. The cake won’t soak up as much of the syrup, but it will still be good.)

Remove the cake from the pan. Combine the powdered sugar with 2-3 tablespoons of the bourbon soaking syrup and whisk to combine. Drizzle the glaze over the cake. Allow the glaze to set before serving. 

Recipe from Bake it with Booze

Oatmeal Date Bars

Occasionally, I get stuck in thinking of what to bake and I either ask my husband or my friends at work what I should bake. I asked my husband what cookies I should bake and he said something with dates. I had some chopped dates on hand (that I had planned to use for another recipe) so I figured I could probably find something. I would like to make something like a filled sugar cookie, with a cooked date filling, but that takes more time that I usually have. I searched around and found this recipe. They seemed like perfect comfort food.

These bars started out as cookies, but I second guessed myself. Because the dates have so much sugar, the dough is quite sticky. I baked the first batch as drop cookies and they just didn’t bake up right. They didn’t seem cooked through, but on the other hand they were too crisp around the edges. I fiddled around with the oven temperature and that seemed to make it worse. By then, I used the dough to make 2 dozen not so great cookies. I decided to make bar cookies instead. That worked out!

I actually made my cookies in a 9 inch square pan, but I’d already used some of the dough. To make bar cookies with the entire batch, I would use a 9 x 13 inch pan, which is what the instructions call for. Your bars might be a different thickness, but it would be very close to what you see here. Cooking time is a bit hard to judge; the dates lend stickiness to the dough so they seem soft and under baked. Just watch them while they are baking and when tested with a toothpick it will come out clean. I didn’t have the best of luck baking these, but the flavors are fantastic, and my husband and I have enjoyed eating the “messed up” cookies.

Oatmeal Date Bars

1-1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon molasses

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

3 cups old fashioned oats

1-1/2 cups chopped dates

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch square pan with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a large mixer bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Stir in the molasses and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Again with the mixer running on low, stir in the oats one cup at a time. Stir in the dates by hand. Press the mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 25-35 minutes, until browned around the edges and set in the center. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Recipe from Kleinworth and Co.