Five picnic desserts, all built around dates instead of refined sugar or dairy fat, all assembled without an oven. Ingredient amounts below make roughly 12-15 pieces per recipe, enough for a small group.
1. Date and oat energy balls
200g pitted dates, 100g rolled oats, 2 tbsp peanut butter, pinch of salt. Blend the dates first until they form a rough paste, then pulse in the oats and peanut butter. Roll into 20g balls. Ready to eat in twenty minutes, keeps for four days in a sealed container.
2. No-bake date and nut bars
150g chopped dates, 3 tbsp coconut oil, 150g mixed nuts, 30g desiccated coconut. Warm the coconut oil and dates together over low heat until it loosens into a paste, off the heat stir in the nuts and coconut, press into a lined 20cm tray, chill one hour, cut into bars.
3. Stuffed dates with cream cheese and almond
12 large dates, 100g cream cheese, 1 tsp honey, 12 toasted almonds. Slit each date lengthwise and remove the seed. Mix cream cheese with honey, pipe or spoon into each date, top with an almond. Best eaten within a few hours of assembly since the filling softens in heat.
4. Date and coconut rolls
200g soft dates, 60g desiccated coconut, 2 tbsp coconut cream. Mash the dates into a paste, work in the coconut cream, roll out flat between two sheets of baking paper, sprinkle with desiccated coconut, roll into a log, chill, then slice into coins.
5. Chocolate-dipped dates
16 whole pitted dates, 100g dark chocolate, flaky salt. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, dip each date halfway, set on baking paper, sprinkle with a pinch of salt while the chocolate is still wet. Store somewhere shaded — direct sun softens the chocolate within the hour.
Which dates to buy for these
Softer, moister varieties roll and mash more easily than firmer ones — worth knowing before you buy in bulk for a group event. Our guides to Kurma Medjool and buying kurma commercially in bulk cover pricing and where to source larger quantities, and if you're prepping the day before an event, how to store kurma so it stays fresh is worth a read first.