THIN AND CHEWY DATES AND RUM COOKIES

THIN AND CHEWY DATES AND RUM COOKIES

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DENSE AND CHEWY AND BORDERLINE STICKY

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Sometimes, I feel, if a recipe could talk… it wouldn’t be thanking me for lovingly bringing it into this world, nor telling me how it did at school today over a cup of hot cocoa, nor about its hopes and dreams as we laugh and cry together in the kitchen at the end of a sun-drenched afternoon…  Sometimes, I feel, if a recipe could talk, first and foremost, it would probably just gently lean into my ears, and the three little words it whispers with steady breath would sound something like…  Just.  Shut up.

See, it’s not that my recipes are mean, because I assure you that I raised them all with decent manners.  But sometimes I have to admit that they’ve got a point.  Let’s take this instance as an example, shall we?  Cookies.  Very fast, very easy, zero electronic machinery needed.  Tinted with ground allspice and cardamon, and filled with minced rum-soaked dates.  If you like crispy-on-the-bottom-and-edges, but dense-and-chewy-and-borderline-sticky kind of cookies, I don’t know what else the recipe would want me to say except… make it now.

So.  Make it now.

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Recipe based on the choclate chips cookies on allrecipes.com, via Smitten Kitchen.

STICKY, CHEWY DATES AND RUM COOKIES

Yield: 26 cookies

Ingredients

  • 15 oz (425 grams) pitted dates
  • 2 tbsp dark rum
  • 3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup (190 grams) brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/2 tsp ground cardamon
  • 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
  • Flakey sea salt to sprinkle

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven on 340F/170C.
  2. Finely mince the pitted dates, then mix them evenly with dark rum (the minced dates are really sticky so you may need to use your hands to work this). Let soak for 10 min. Meanwhile in a large bowl, whisk melted unsalted butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Then whisk in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract until smooth again. Sift the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, ground allspice, ground cardamon and freshly grated nutmeg directly into the bowl, then mix all the ingredients into a dough with a spatula. Add the run-soaked dates, then fold again until evenly incorporated (again, the dates are sticky so break them up with the spatula).
  3. Line the baking-sheet with parchment, then scoop about a heaping tbsp of dough on top with 3" (8 cm) of space in between each. Use your fingers to press each cookie-dough flat to about 1/4" (0.5 cm) thick (you can dab your fingers with a bit of vegetable oil to prevent sticking). Sprinkle with a few flakes of sea salt on each, then bake in the oven for 10~11 min (the cookies should feel quite soft when they're warm).
  4. Let cool on the baking-sheet for 5 min, then transfer to a cooling-rack.

Notes

The weight of the dates is measured without pits.

https://ladyandpups.com/2015/03/09/thin-and-chewy-dates-and-rum-cookies/

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11 Comments
  • Charlie (Chockywoky)

    March 9, 2015 at 8:57 PM Reply

    my excitement after seeing this on insta was clearly not wasted

    *returns to ogling cookies*

  • findash

    March 9, 2015 at 9:39 PM Reply

    making this weekend – rum in baked goods – best

  • Erin@WellPlated

    March 9, 2015 at 10:13 PM Reply

    Well said, recipe :) I can have this with a little rum-spiked coffee on the side, yes?

  • Ursula @ LilVienna.com

    March 9, 2015 at 10:50 PM Reply

    I feel like I’m buying 1 pound of butter every week. And this recipe is not gonna help ;-)

  • Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar

    March 10, 2015 at 5:37 AM Reply

    This is one fabulous flavour! These cookies need to get in my body.

  • Lynn | The Road to Honey

    March 11, 2015 at 4:43 AM Reply

    Well alrighty then. If the cookie says that I must make it, then I must make it. And since they are crunchy on the outside and stick on the in. . .why bother arguing with the cookie?

  • cynthia

    March 11, 2015 at 11:41 PM Reply

    bahahaha I love this post, Mandy!! These cookies look and sound absolutely perfect.

  • LauraR

    March 14, 2015 at 1:34 AM Reply

    What variety of dates do you use? Medjhool are my favorites.

    • mandy@ladyandpups

      March 14, 2015 at 1:37 AM Reply

      Laura, I’m not sure about the specific name, but they are small, dark, and from Iran I think.

  • Sara

    May 26, 2015 at 5:47 AM Reply

    These were great! They made awesome coffee ice cream sandwiches since they are so soft. Mine came out puffy not thin but maybe because I made them smaller? Still super moist, soft and chewy.

  • Jennie

    December 7, 2022 at 2:36 AM Reply

    These are just amazing–so spicy and delicious. However, mine came out looking nothing like the pics. The picture looks like chocolate-chip-style cookies that happen to have dates in them. Mine are brown and mounded, like New England “hermits.” Plus they are super soft, not particularly chewy, and certainly not crispy. I wonder how the same ingredients, following the same recipe, can have such different results? Nevertheless, I’m thrilled with these, they are addictively delicious.

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