It’s a date with truffles

MARYLAND: Dates (khajoor) are a Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and a Ramazan favourite of every household. A summery Ramazan, however, brings sultry heat and dates have a warming effect on the body.

The best way to have them is to chill them — ideally, in cold water or in the fridge. A bright idea for a more gourmet iftar is to make date truffles. They can be infused with multiple flavours, according to your preference. You can even trick children who don’t like dates into eating them by confusing them with chocolate truffles. There is no rocket science involved, but just simple creativity and a sense of combining the right flavours together. If you Google date truffles, there are about a hundred recipes floating there. I like to do it my way with a little desi twist and a handful of ingredients to make different types of date truffles.

Method

To make your gourmet style date truffles, simply add dates, cocoa powder, rose water, nuts mix, cardamom powder, cinnamon powder, and melted butter in a food processor. Give the ingredients a good grind until they form a smooth dough-like mixture. Next, scoop it all out and roll out truffles in the shape of balls with your hands. To make the truffles a little glazed, you can coat your hands with sugar syrup when you roll the truffles. The truffles should be laid out on a platter or baking tray with parchment paper underneath them so that they don’t stick. They are to be chilled in the fridge for a good two hours before they are firm enough to present. This is the plain, basic truffle.

Various different types of truffles can be assembled using simple ingredients. For a chocolate coated truffle, after refrigerating the plain truffles for two hours, dip them in melted chocolate that is at room temperature and set them on the parchment paper again. Pop them in the fridge for another two hours for a firm chocolate crust. A nutty truffle is coated with the nuts mix of your choice. The chilled, plain truffles are rolled in the nuts mix and chilled for two hours. Even the chocolate coated truffle can be rolled in the nuts mix. But you’ve got to do that right after you take the truffle out of the melted chocolate while still wet, and then refrigerate to set. Grated coconut is also an ideal coating for the truffles, plain or chocolate-coated.

You can put your creativity to the test this Ramazan and create your own unique date truffles. I have coated my date truffles with sesame seeds, sugar and cinnamon, sprinkles (coloured and chocolate), and even granulated sugar. You can create an ultimate desi version and try coating them with paan masala. There’s nothing better than taking some digestive goodness to counter the heavy duty iftar menus that we tend to consume.

So, it’s a date then?



Ingredients

Two cups pitted, soft dates (preferably medjool dates)

One tablespoon sweetened cocoa powder

One tsp rose water (or rose essence)

Sweetened, grated coconut

One cup grated almonds, pistachios, and walnuts mix (you can grate nuts of your choice)

Half tsp cardamom powder

Half tsp cinnamon

One-and-a-half tsp melted butter

One cup melted chocolate of your choice (dark, milk chocolate, white chocolate, etc)

Anum Ali is a US-based creative writer and home baker. She is an editor and staff writer for Muslim youth magazines and websites, and publishes her own food, travel, and photography blogs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2014.

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