Dates & Noix Fourrees (Dates and Walnuts Stuffed with Marzipan)

Ruth and Gabriel Stulman/Jewish Food Society, Friends of Saturday Night Seder

BACKSTORY:

When Ruth Stulman was growing up in Rabat, along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, the end of Passover was celebrated with the entire neighborhood. Ruth would run from one house to the next greeting neighbors with terbah (from terbah u’tissad), an Arabic felicitation to wish one luck and success. Tables were dressed with crepes called mufleta accompanied with honey and butter, cookies made with walnuts and marzipan or pistachios perfumed with rosewater, and couscous infused with milk and cinnamon. “You have to take something at every house,” Ruth explains. 

The celebration, called Mimouna, has Moroccan origins but is observed in other North African Jewish communities and in Israel. “Mimouna happens to be on the last day of Pesach, because that’s when the Jews crossed the sea,” Ruth adds. “It’s a moment of celebration and freedom.” 

By the time Ruth’s son Gabriel was 12, she had taken over the family’s Mimouna celebration. Now Gabriel, who owns and operates a collection of hip, neighborhood restaurants in Manhattan recalls: “We did our best to keep my mother’s traditions and customs alive without having the community around.”

 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 cups raw almonds

  • ¾ cup confectioners sugar

  • 4 teaspoons orange blossom water 

  • Red food coloring

  • Green food coloring

  • 24 medjool dates

  • 4 cups whole walnuts

  • ½ cup granulated sugar, for dusting


DIRECTIONS

Makes: 24 stuffed dates, 30 stuffed walnuts

Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

  1. Place almonds in a large heat-proof bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand for exactly one minute (any longer and they will soften too much). Drain then cover again with cold water. Gently squeeze each almond between your fingers to remove the skin. Spread on a baking sheet and allow to dry, about 30 minutes.

  2. Place the blanched almonds in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add the sugar and pulse to evenly combine. Add the orange blossom water and pulse until a paste forms.

  3. Separate the marzipan paste into three equal portions. Color one portion with 2-4 drops of red food coloring and one with 2-4 drops of green food coloring (add more or less food coloring depending on what color you’re going for). Leave the third portion uncolored. 

  4. For the dates; split open on one side with a paring knife and remove the pit. Fill with a heaping teaspoon of marzipan paste. Use the back of a knife to make a design with indentations (get creative)! Repeat with the remaining dates.

  5. For the walnuts; roll a heaping teaspoon of marzipan paste into a ball and place it in between 2 walnut halves like a sandwich. Repeat with the remaining walnuts.

  6. Place the granulated sugar on a plate and roll each cookie lightly in sugar. 

  7. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Courtesy of Jewish Food Society

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