Date Truffles (Madgooga)

hoda's Note:

This recipe is easy to make and popular in Iraq since one of the things that Iraq is famous for is dates. We have lots of varieties and kinds of dates from chewy to very hard. It is better to use this recipe with hard type of dates (called kasab) not soft, but you could use soft dates if you didn't find hard dates. Sometimes Ii use already-crushed dates from the market and it goes well too. There are lots of varieties for the coating of the truffles, use as many coatings as you like according to your personal taste.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 36 balls

• 2 cups pitted dates , hard type
• ½ cup sesame paste
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom

coating

• plain cocoa powder
• icing sugar
• ground coffee , not espresso
• sesame seed
• shredded coconut
• ground nuts (pistachio, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashew nut, peanuts and almonds)

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Grind the mixture with meat grinder finely
3. Shape the dates into small balls 2 cm in diameter with slightly oiled hand with vegetable oil (I like to shape them roughly so they are not so perfect balls).
4. Roll the truffles in your selected coating and place on parchment paper or tray.
5. Put the truffles in small decorative paper cups and arrange them in the serving plate.
6. If you bought dates that are already ground and pitted, you don't need to grind them in the meat grinder, simply knead ingredients together by hand or you can grind it again by the meat grinder.

Reviews

[Mohamjip]

I make an almost identical recipe, which my friend from Croatia brought with her. She said that she has used dried figs when dates weren't available, though I've never tried that, yet.

[mliss29]

These are really good! I only made half a batch because my food processor is little, but I used the full amout of cardamom. Wow! These were good! Reviewed for Pick-A-Chef

[UmmBinat]

Cute looking and really good! I liked them more than I thought I would. They were not too sweet. I did use Parnoosh soft Iranian dates as that is what I had on hand. They were easy to blend up with my hands but I can see the texture may be a bit better with harder type dates. I made my own sesame paste grinding sesame seeds with a very little bit of canola oil with my pestle and mortar and added a bit of tahini only because it wasn't enough (another time I used all store bought tahini). I am assuming that is what sesame paste is referring to anyway? I also seeded & crushed my own hail (cardamom, I may have used a bit more than called for as I love it, another time I used ground cinnamon as I was lazy to grind cardamom and it was good as well). I coated the truffles with carob powder (my favorite), sesame seeds, unsweetened dedicated coconut & ground pistachio nuts (my second favorite). I would like to make these again for DH with Arab brewed tea or maybe during Ramadan as a selection with sweets. Made for Spring 2011 (PAC) Pick A Chef.