cookingjnj
Well-known member
Hi all,
First and foremost Happy New Year to everyone. I hope the year brings health and happiness to all.
I am not sure if I have posted this cook in the past. If I have, my apologies for the duplicate.
I was asked to bring an appy for a NYE party last night. I had not made the dates in a while and decided I would make them. It is a very easy prep and cook. All you need are dates (I used whole Medjool Dates), bacon, blue cheese, almonds, brown sugar and your favorite rub. Here is the process
-Since I used whole dates, I needed to pit the date by slicing down the date length wise. This also creates a nice pocket for stuffing. These dates had a hard stem which I also took off.
-Stuff the pocket with 1 sliver of almond and the blue cheese. If you don't like blue cheese you can skip and do just almond, or skip stuffing all together.
-Cut your bacon slices (best to use thin bacon) in half and wrap the date with the half bacon slice and secure with a toothpick.
-Add a little extra brown sugar to your favorite rub and sprinkle on all sides of the wrapped date.
-It is easy if you have grill mats or a cooling rack to hold all the dates and move on and off the pit.
-Set pit for 250 and cook the dates for 30 minutes.
-Raise temp to 425 to crisp the bacon up a little bit. After about 10 minutes start to watch so you do not burn the bacon. Take off pit when bacon is at the consistency you like.
These are a fantastic treat to make for any occasion. The creamy saltiness of the blue cheese and bacon really works well with the very sweetness of the date. The almond sliver gives just a little texture change. These are great hot, and still very good when cooled down. You will see from the finished pics, my cook went a little past where I wanted it to be. We have a new puppy, and of course his nature told him he had to go, right at the crucial moment and they stayed on about 2 minutes too long. However, EVERYONE raved about how good they were. They were not the best I have made, but still darn good.
Sorry I do not have more pics of the process or any pics of them plated.
First and foremost Happy New Year to everyone. I hope the year brings health and happiness to all.
I am not sure if I have posted this cook in the past. If I have, my apologies for the duplicate.
I was asked to bring an appy for a NYE party last night. I had not made the dates in a while and decided I would make them. It is a very easy prep and cook. All you need are dates (I used whole Medjool Dates), bacon, blue cheese, almonds, brown sugar and your favorite rub. Here is the process
-Since I used whole dates, I needed to pit the date by slicing down the date length wise. This also creates a nice pocket for stuffing. These dates had a hard stem which I also took off.
-Stuff the pocket with 1 sliver of almond and the blue cheese. If you don't like blue cheese you can skip and do just almond, or skip stuffing all together.
-Cut your bacon slices (best to use thin bacon) in half and wrap the date with the half bacon slice and secure with a toothpick.
-Add a little extra brown sugar to your favorite rub and sprinkle on all sides of the wrapped date.
-It is easy if you have grill mats or a cooling rack to hold all the dates and move on and off the pit.
-Set pit for 250 and cook the dates for 30 minutes.
-Raise temp to 425 to crisp the bacon up a little bit. After about 10 minutes start to watch so you do not burn the bacon. Take off pit when bacon is at the consistency you like.
These are a fantastic treat to make for any occasion. The creamy saltiness of the blue cheese and bacon really works well with the very sweetness of the date. The almond sliver gives just a little texture change. These are great hot, and still very good when cooled down. You will see from the finished pics, my cook went a little past where I wanted it to be. We have a new puppy, and of course his nature told him he had to go, right at the crucial moment and they stayed on about 2 minutes too long. However, EVERYONE raved about how good they were. They were not the best I have made, but still darn good.
Sorry I do not have more pics of the process or any pics of them plated.
