Chocolate And Date Recipes

Chocolate and dates may not be the most obvious flavour pairing, but for anyone who’s every tried bliss balls, you’ll know it’s one that works very well indeed. Here you’ll find a collection of chocolate and date recipes, some much less obvious than others. Do try one.

This post for chocolate and date recipes is partly an amalgamation of two We Should Cocoa challenge posts. One was for festive treats containing dates and chocolate and the other was for sugar-free chocolate recipes. However, I’ve deleted a number of recipes which no longer exist, moved some into a more appropriate recipe collection and added other recipes along the way.

Turns out that dates are a fantastic substitution for beet or cane sugar and they work surprisingly well in a number of sweet recipes. The rich combination of chocolate and dates also makes them excellent fare for Christmas, Thanksgiving and the holiday period.

What Makes Dates A Good Sweetener?

Dates are naturally incredibly sweet and they contain a lot of sugar. However, unlike cane and beet sugars they’re relatively low on the glycemic index. This is because they’re a whole food and thus contain plenty of fibre.

What’s more they’re packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and are also good for gut health (ref: BBC).

These benefits make dates an excellent sweetener and a good alternative to refined sugar. As with most things that are particularly delicious, it’s not a good idea to eat too many of them at any one time though.

Festive Chocolate and Date Recipes

Chocolate Praline Stuffed Dates

Participating for the first time, Stephanie of Confectionary Designs has made a good start with these really luscious looking chocolate praline stuffed dates

Date Truffle Fudge

Lucy of The KitchenMaid, having forgotten to submit her entry last month, got in good and early this time. I’m really glad about that, as this dreamy date truffle fudge should not be missed.

Date Chocolate Orange Festive Tarts

For those not keen on mincemeat, these gorgeous date chocolate and orange festive tarts from Suelle at Mainly Baking would make a great alternative to traditional mince pies.

Coconut Bliss Balls

These sumptuous coconut bliss balls are a type of raw chocolate truffle. They don’t have the name bliss balls for nothing, even though they are relatively healthy. Find the recipe here at Tin and Thyme.

Chocolate Date & Walnut Bars

Suelle from Mainly Baking brings us a healthier version of a brownie with these chocolate date and walnut bars.

Date And Hazelnut Bars

Filling, crumbly, rich and unctuous, these date and hazelnut bars are delicious. They’re one of the bakes I like to make at Christmas. Find the recipe here at Tin and Thyme.

Date And Chocolate Gateau Breton

Phil of As Strong As Soup came up with an inspired twist on the classic cake from Brittany with his gateau Breton with dates and chocolate.

Date And Chocolate Clafoutis

Hanna of Corner Cottage Bakery also went for a twist on a French classic. She went one further and had it for breakfast – yum – date and chocolate clafoutis.

Chocolate Christmas Cake

The fruit Christmas cake was not forgotten, BrownieVilleGirl made a chocolate Christmas cake that I think I might have to make next year.

Chocolate And Date Chestnut Verrines

Here’s something doubly festive from Sarah of Maison Cupcake with these lovely pots of yumminess – date chocolate chestnut verrines.

Date And Walnut Maamoul

Short buttery pastries stuffed with a cinnamon flavoured date filling. These classic middle eastern cookies are called maamoul and they’re perfect for gifting at Christmas time. You’ll find the recipe here on Tin and Thyme.

Date And Chocolate Cookies

I have a thing for dates and really can’t resist them. Hmm, there seems to be quite a few things I find irresistible. Well these date and chocolate cookies from Apply to Face Blog are going straight onto my “must make very soon” list.

Date And Ginger Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Suelle over at Mainly Baking brings us an unusual but delightful combination of flavours in these date and ginger chocolate chip biscuits.

Sugar-Free Chocolate And Date Recipes

Sugar-Free Brownies

Dom over at Belleau Kitchen got us off to a healthy start in the sugar-free challenge. Turns out his sugar-free brownies are full of dates. We’re in for a double treat here as he’s given not one recipe, but two: almond, fennel seed and banana brownies AND chocolate, coconut and banana truffle brownies.

Oat Chocolate Truffles

My contribution are these organic chocolate truffles made with only three ingredients and a pinch of salt. I’m a big fan of energy balls as they’re so easy to make. But these are the first I’ve made with no nuts or seeds. Dates are, of course, the key ingredient.

Post-Workout Protein Bites

Over at Elizabeth’s Kitchen, things got interesting – pony poo anyone? Designed to give a natural and nutritious boost after visiting the gym, these baked post-workout protein bites did the trick. Pony poo notwithstanding, both Elizabeth and her children found them to be very tasty. And what’s inspired these trips to the gym? She’s training to be a lifeboat volunteer.

Chocolate & Date Smoothie

Helen of Fuss Free Flavours has gone for a complete antidote to the typical over indulgence of December with her chocolate date smoothie. It is, of course, sugar-free.

Date And Maple Brownies

Brownies, being one of my many weaknesses, I was thrilled to discover that Suelle of Mainly Baking also managed to get some in to the no-sugar challenge. Who would have thought you could have a sugar-free brownie? Well Suelle did for one. She reports that these date and maple brownies are light and cake-like, but also moist and tasty.

Chocolate Date Pistachio Truffles

Our first non-brown photograph brings us more raw truffles from Ruth of Makey-Cakey. These chocolate, date and pistachio truffles were a goodbye offering to her work colleagues as she started a new job earlier this month. I do love pistachios and rolling the truffles in green nuts makes them look really pretty. Congratulations Ruth and good luck.

Paleo-Diet Chocolate Cake

One of my resolutions this year is to stick to my one day of fasting a week. However, I know lots have other dieting resolutions. One diet I have not heard of until Mari of the Nutty Tart bought my attention to it, is the Paleo Diet. From what I can gather, this seems to be going back to the diet of our ancestors (sort of) and cutting out refined foods, starch and sugars. Anyway, as Mari put it herself, she went caveman this month and baked the Paleo diet chocolate cake – lucky cavemen I say!

Keep in Touch

And hear ends our collection of chocolate and date recipes for Christmas or any other time. We do hope you’ve found something you really want to make.

Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make any of these chocolate and date recipes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any favourite recipes with this combination?

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For more Christmas chocolate recipe collections, try this one for festive chocolate recipes, this one for boozy chocolate recipes, this one for chocolate orange recipes and this one for chocolate cinnamon recipes.

If you’d like even more Christmas recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x