I organize my cookbooks by authors who'd be fun to watch cook together so my treasured copy of Julia Waldbaum Has a Recipe for Holiday Cooking sits next to Snoop Dogg's From Crook to Cook. It's much more amusing than alphabetical order. Coincidentally I've been baking from both books this week. My friends are getting Snoop Dogg's peanut butter cookies and the late Julia Waldbaum's Date Cookies for Chanukah.
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Date Cookies for Chanukah
Dates, along with barley, wheat, olives, pomegranate, grapes and figs are mentioned in the Torah as the seven species. Dates represent sweetness and abundance, so of course dates are a part of celebratory Jewish cuisine. Foods fried in oil are more of a Chanukah tradition, but dates are certainly along for the ride! These cookies are great for Chanukah, and they can easily be made dairy-free by using margarine instead of butter.
Margarine vs. Butter
You can use margarine or salted butter. If you do use margarine, be sure it's NOT one of the lower fat types. The quickest way is to check the nutrition label to see if it has about 100 calories per tablespoon. The ones in the first photo were made with Earth Balance from a tub. I also made a batch with salted butter. The butter batch had more buttery flavor (obviously), but both batches were tasty.
The Dough
Julia Waldbaum didn't say to do this, but I recommend dividing the dough into 4 pieces and creating 4 logs rather than attempting to make one mega log. And you definitely need to chill the logs before slicing. I chilled mine, froze them until firm and cut while frozen. If you are a perfectionist, you can use the paper towel roll trick to make perfect rounds (unlike these).
Paper Towel Roll Trick
Something I learned from Dorie Greenspan's Baking, From My Home to Yours.
- Roll your cookie dough into logs and wrap in plastic.
- With scissors, cut open a cardboard paper towel tube lengthwise.
- Wrap the cut cardboard tube around the dough log, molding with your hands to fit. You can then secure the cardboard with a rubber band or you can just position it seam side down so that it holds its cylindrical shape.
- Put the dough back in the refrigerator to chill or in the freezer for a quick freeze.
Using the cardboard tube helps a little, but you still have to nudge the dough slices into circles after slicing. Here are some cookies I made using the cardboard tube hack.
Date Filling
The date filling is quick and easy. Chop the dates, put them in a saucepan with sugar and water and boil for a minute. They break down as they boil, so if using soft dates like Medjool you can get away with a rough chop and a little mushing. For more zing you can throw in a bit of lemon zest.
The Mat - To Flour or Not to Flour
When rolling dough for cookies or pie, I've always worried the dough would pick up too much flour from the mat. This has led to using techniques such as refrigerating the dough or slicking a mat with oil to avoid flour. But what I've learned is extra flour from the mat is not always a bad thing. Some bread and pie doughs need it. For these cookies, I used cold dough and no flour on the mat for one batch and room temp dough and a floured mat for the other. The cold dough cracked as it rolled and I had to smooth over the cracks while shaping the cylinder. The dough on the floured mat picked up quite a bit as I rolled. Both batches were good, but the cookies from the unfloured mat were a little crisper.
Storing Date Cookies
I made a lot of these and am glad they're easy to store! You can wrap the rolls of dough tightly and freeze the date cookies until ready to bake or freeze the baked cookies. If you are making the dough just a few days ahead, you can keep it in the refrigerator. The flavor of the dough actually improves a little after a day or two and there's more browning so these are just great make-aheads all around.
Recipe
Julia Waldbaum's Date Cookies for Chanukah
Ingredients
- 1 cup full fat margarine or salted butter, softened (228 grams) I used Earth Balance from the tub
- 1 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark) (210 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- ½ teaspoon cardamom or cinnamon optional
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (520 grams)**
Date Filling
- 1 pound dates pitted and chopped
- ½ cup white sugar (100 grams)
- ½ cup water (114 grams)
Instructions
- Beat margarine or butter and both sugars until creamy, then beat in the eggs, one by one, scraping the side of the bowl often.
- Beat in the vanilla and spices, followed by the salt and baking soda. Add flour one cup at a time, stirring or beating on lowest speed until blended.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Set each portion on a piece of parchment, then press and roll doing your best to shape it into an 8x6 inch rectangle. You can chill the rolled rectangles until ready to use or proceed with the recipe.
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Combine dates, water and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, mashing the dates as they soften. Let cool completely.
- Working with one portion at a time, roll or press out the dough on a lightly floured mat to make a rectangle about 8x6 inches and a little less than ¼ inch thick. Spread ¼ of the filling evenly over the rectangle, then roll like a jelly roll or spiral starting from the long side.. Wrap in plastic, put in the refrigerator and repeat with remaining dough.
- Chill the rolls of dough overnight or for several hours.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment. If your oven runs hot, try 350 degrees F.
- Take the dough roll out of the refrigerator or freezer. At this point you can sprinkle a little cardamom on top if you'd like or skip that.
- Using a serrated knife, cut the cold firm rolls into ⅛ inch slices. Place the slices on prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
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