Macadamia Date Roll Cookies – Perfect for the Holidays

Macadamia Date Roll Cookies – Perfect Christmas Cookies

Date Roll Cookies are a Christmas tradition in my family. The sweet and nutty filling wrapped up in butter based cookie dough just melts in the mouth. So delicious you can’t stop eating. This cookies uses macadamia but pecans or walnuts make an equally delicious combination with dates.

Video Recipe – Macadamia Date Roll Cookies

Collaboration with 6 other Food Bloggers for Christmas Cookies

Since this month is all about the holidays, me and my food blogger friends thought we’d come up with some Christmas Cookies for you. Here are 6 Festive Cookies that are absolutely amazing. And they do include two no bake cookies as well as a gluten free cookie recipe in there. So now no complaining you have a good excuse to try one of them.  Don’t forget to look for the links below

What is the one thing you remember most about Christmas from your childhood?

Is it the presents? Santa? The decorations? Christmas Dinner? For me it’s the baking with my mom. I think I told you before, as a single mom the two things she did to raise us is sewing and cooking/baking. She’s take lots of orders during Christmas time just so she could give us the Christmas she dreamed for us. Gosh I cannot imagine how hard she worked just so Santa could bring us the gifts we asked. She hated to see us disappointed and pushed her to do so much more.

These are Date Roll cookies and while the nut often changes, the dates remain the same. I’m sure they’d taste amazing with figs or apricots as well but I’ve always used dates and that’s because mom always used dates. I remember these were so popular that she made buckets of these. I’d help to paint the red and green stripes and that’s why they remind me of mom and Christmas even more.

Christmas in Israel

Despite being so far away from Christmas here in Israel where we do celebrate Christmas; I share with my kids and raise them with the Christmas spirit doing the same things mom did. I like remembering her by baking with the kids; makes me feel like a better mother.

Macadamia date roll cookie dough.

These are really easy to make; just follow the process I’ve given you closely. The dough is really simple and you can see in the video. I don’t use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar because it’s so effortless and takes 3 minutes.  Let the cookie dough chill when I tell you to; so they are easy to work with. Mom always said – A CHILLED COOKIE DOUGH IS YOUR BEST FRIEND.

 

Give them a Christmas Make-Over.

As you can see these make great Christmas Gift Jars. Perfect treats for the holiday. And to take them one step further I even gave them a Christmas Make Over with these red and green stripes. I used edible gel colors diluted with some water. You can use super market brand water based colors for this job. No big fuss with which colors to use here.

 Let’s talk ingredients for our Macadamia Date Roll Cookies – Shall we?

• Dates – date roll cookies can be made with dates but to be honest they can very well be figs or apricot or prunes. You can use a combination of them too!
• Macadamia – I used macadamia this time but I often use Pecan (my husbands favorite nuts) But as a kid mom made with Cashews or Walnuts. So you see again the nut can be your choice too – told ya!!
• Consistency – while you can change the nuts and the fruit – the one thing you wanna make sure you do is keep the ratio of fruit to nut as 3:1 which means 3 parts fruit and one part nuts; more or less. As you will see in the video above – these need to be rolled into logs so they can be then wrapped into the dough. You can roll them better when the ration of fruit to nut is balanced. Again – approximate 3 to 1 ratio is good.
• Spices – For variation you can add some Christmas Spice in these. I don’t and honestly it’s just because mom didn’t but a mix of some warm spices such as ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg would really bring a lot more to these cookies.

Let’s get into the recipe shall we? – Macadamia Date Roll Cookies

Tools

• Food Processor
• Baking Bowls
• Whisk / Spatula
• Rolling Pin
• Baking Trays

Ingredients

For the dough

• 250 grams / 2 cups  – All Purpose Flour
• 200 grams – Confectioners Sugar / Icing Sugar
• 170 grams – Unsalted Butter
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla

For the Filing

• 120 grams Macadamia
• 300 grams Dates
• 1/4 tsp mixed spices (optional)

Extra

• Egg wash – 1/2 egg with 2 tbsp water

Method

Prepare Cookie Dough

• Combine flour, baking powder and salt set aside
• Add vanilla to the egg – set aside.
• Cream butter and confectioners sugar until creamy
• Add egg mix- mix until well combined
• Next add flour in two batches – mix until well combined
• Once well combined – divide dough into two or three batches and form discs
• Wrap discs in cling wrap to chill well.

Prepare Filling

• In a food processor add the nuts and spices – pulse to coarse breadcrumb consistency
• Remove the nut mixture – set aside.
• Deseed from the dates and add them to the food processor.
• Pulse until broken into tiny pieces as shown in the video.
• Now add the nut mixture back into the food process with the dates
• Pulse until it all comes together
• Take  a little mixture into your hand, you should be able to roll into a ball.
• If not pulse some more – then set the mixture aside.

Make the date rolls

• This is fairly simple as long as your dough is well chilled and mixture can be rolled into logs.
• Take a little date mixture into your hand – form a ball then roll it into a log.
• You want thin logs so the resulting cookies will be delicate and pretty.
• Do not make them very long – they are easier to handle in lengths of 10 to 15 inches.

Assemble the date roll cookies

• Ensure the dough is really well chilled.
• Roll dough into a sheet as shown in the video
• Place a date log on the sheet at one end.
• Use a tiny amount of water to help stick the dough together
• Wrap the dough into a log.
• Place the rolls onto a baking sheet with Parchment Paper
• Place the rolls back into the fridge –
• Cover tray with cling wrap to avoid them getting too dry.

Cut and bake the date roll cookies

• Preheat oven at 190 C / 380 F
• Once chilled the logs are easier to handle.
• Cut them into two inch pieces – I use a ruler so they are all same size
• Brush with egg wash  OR
• Create red and green Christmas stripes
• Sprinkle some granulated sugar on them
• Bake in the preheated oven for about 9 to 10 minutes.
• Once baked let them cool 10 minutes before you move them to a baking rack.
• Cool completely before you place them in a cookie jar.

Here is my video on You Tube for those of you that cannot watch the above video.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel – I have a new video every week.

Save this tutorial on Pinterest for later. Find a collection of my tutorials and recipes here on Pinterest  

Finally here are the links to the rest of the cookies in the collage above.

Holiday White Chocolate Mini Popcorn Balls – by Gloria Duggan  of Homemade & Yummy
Gingerbread Cookies – by Melissa Radcliffe of My Wife Can Cook
No-Bake Cinnamon Peanut Butter Cranberry Cookies – By Arlene Braun Mobley of Flour on my Face
Gluten Free Spiced Cookie Brittle – by Sarah Jane Parker of The Fit Cookie
No Bake Chocolate Cranberry Cookie – by Kirsten Burrows of Treat yourself Sweeter.
And of course – My Macadamia Date Roll Cookies  

These will make perfect cookies jar gifts for this holiday!

 Love Cookies? Me too! You may like to check out some of my other cookie recipes.
Or Click here to see a Recipe Index of all recipes on my blog.