- 1/2 lb pastured thick-cut bacon, cut in half (roughly 20 “half-strips”)
- 20 medjool dates (quantity to match your number of bacon strips)
- 20 toothpicks (again, to match your number of bacon strips)
- Start out preheating the oven to 350 degrees.
- Most of the time, your dates will still have the pits in them. Slice into them with a sharp knife down to the pit, then pop it out with your fingers.
- At this point, you may choose to add some sort of stuffing to the dates, such as raw almonds, raw hazelnuts, bleu cheese, feta cheese, or parmesan cheese.
- In our case, I did about 1/3 with raw almonds, and the rest just plain.
- Place enough stuffing to fill the cavity left by the pit, then close the date back up (they are sticky enough they seem to just “glue” back together).
- Once you’ve got the dates stuffed, wrap each one with a bacon strip and secure the ends with a toothpick pushed through the center. If you’ve got nuts in the middle of the dates, you’ll have to aim the toothpick to miss the nut…it’s much easier then trying to push the toothpick through the nut.
- Arrange them on a baking pan with sides (like this 15x10x1 stoneware pan).
- Pop them in the preheated oven and set the timer for about 30 minutes.
- Check them when the timer goes off, then adjust additional cooking time to get the bacon to your desired doneness (I would NOT recommend going to full crispy with these, as it makes them hard to keep together when you bite into one). For my oven, 40 minutes was just right. Transfer immediately to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain the excess fat.
- Arrange on a tray and serve warm. Of course, you could make a bunch of these up ahead of time and then simply re-heat them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes to get warmed all the way through before your party.
One of my favorite appetizers is Bacon Wrapped Dates. Granted, the dates themselves have a pretty high sugar content; mass consumption would not be a recommended practice, but having one or four at a gathering certainly won’t kill you…that is, if you can beat back everyone else wrestling to get their hands on them as well!
Gather Up:
- 1/2 lb pastured thick-cut bacon, cut in half (roughly 20 “half-strips”)
- 20 medjool dates (quantity to match your number of bacon strips)
- 20 toothpicks (again, to match your number of bacon strips)
Start out preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Most of the time, your dates will still have the pits in them. Slice into them with a sharp knife down to the pit, then pop it out with your fingers. At this point, you may choose to add some sort of stuffing to the dates, such as:
- Raw almonds
- Raw hazelnuts
- Bleu cheese
- Feta cheese
- Parmesan cheese
In our case, I did about 1/3 with raw almonds, and the rest just plain. Place enough stuffing to fill the cavity left by the pit, then close the date back up (they are sticky enough they seem to just “glue” back together).
Once you’ve got the dates stuffed, wrap each one with a bacon strip and secure the ends with a toothpick pushed through the center. If you’ve got nuts in the middle of the dates, you’ll have to aim the toothpick to miss the nut…it’s much easier then trying to push the toothpick through the nut. Arrange them on a baking pan with sides (like this 15x10x1 stoneware pan).
Pop them in the preheated oven and set the timer for about 30 minutes. Check them when the timer goes off, then adjust additional cooking time to get the bacon to your desired doneness (I would NOT recommend going to full crispy with these, as it makes them hard to keep together when you bite into one). For my oven, 40 minutes was just right. Transfer immediately to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain the excess fat.
Arrange on a tray and serve warm. Of course, you could make a bunch of these up ahead of time and then simply re-heat them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes to get warmed all the way through before your party. Enjoy!
Purely Primal 
I do glaze cherries (sorry not Primal) wrapped in bacon which is also super yummy.
🙂 Mandy
That does sound delicious.
I can tell you first hand that they were absolutely delicious!
*drools* I eat dates and feta just as is on a regular basis. I figure it’s better than some of the junk I used to snack on.
I.Love.Dates. They truly are like candy!
Okay, these are addicting … and so simple to make!
We make these for parties all the time, but feta stuffed…I never thought of that. I will be making these for Sunday’s festivities!!!
How far in advance can I make these? We’re having an open house, 3 hours with about 75 people coming thru. I’d like to get as much done a week ahead as I can. Will these keep that long if I precook then just reheat? Or can I freeze them (cooked or uncooked)? Thanks!
If you figure on 3~4 of these per person (good luck making people only take one), then you are truly ambitious to make enough for 75 people! You could certainly make these up to a week ahead of time – I would precook them and freeze after letting them cool and drain. Make sure to take them out of the freezer and let them fully thaw in the refrigerator before the open house, so that you can pop them into the oven to warm in batches “just in time.” As long as you don’t transfer them into the oven directly out of the freezer, you shouldn’t have any problems with over-cooking or frozen centers.