Have you ever had a great idea? An original, knock-your-socks-off idea that makes you want to run to the nearest phone and tell everyone you know while simultaneously recording your insight in a groundbreaking paper or applying for a patent? And then you discover that the idea isn’t new at all?
These date balls are one of those ideas.
I thought I was being so darn original, chopping up a date after dinner one night and rolling it in sesame seeds. A balance of sweet and savory, stickiness and crunch. As I refined the recipe, adding a bit of honey and chopping the dates more finely to improve the dates’ sesame-sticking capacity, I discovered that my breakthrough was in fact a venerable dessert indeed, traditional pretty much wherever dates and sesame seeds grow.
But I guess a good idea is worth having twice—or ten thousand times.
Sesame Date Balls
- 12 medjool dates
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- 1/4-1/2 C sesame seeds
Halve and pit the dates and put them in a food processor along with the honey and warm water and pulse until they form a fairly smooth paste.
(Alternatively, you can follow the route I took: put everything in the food processor, try to turn it on, and discover it doesn’t work. Put everything in a blender and discover that, although the blades indeed spin, they do absolutely nothing towards chopping the dates. Give up and use a knife.)
Pour some sesame seeds onto a small plate. Divide the date paste into twelve sections and, with moist hands, roll each portion into a ball. Roll each ball in the sesame seeds until it’s evenly coated.
12 date balls.
