Cookies made with dates are delicious and worth the effort to make. The dates can easily be swapped out for raisins or mincemeat.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 2 dozen |
Ingredients
- 1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ cups rolled oats
- 2 tablespoons water, or more as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Mix dates, sugar, and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over low heat. Bring to a boil and cook until thick and smooth, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- Cream butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Gradually mix in flour, salt, and baking soda. Add oatmeal and mix well. Stir in 2 to 4 tablespoons water, as needed for the dough to come together. Form the dough into a ball and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
- Roll dough on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into 2-inch rounds. Place 1/2 of the rounds on cookie sheets. Spoon date mixture in the center of each round and top with another round. Press edges firmly together.
- Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 15 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 129 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 22 g |
| Cholesterol | 10 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 91 mg |
| Sugars | 13 g |
| Fat | 4 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Very labor intensive recipe for 2 dozen cookies. Really tasty, well probably try again. I used my ravioli press to cut tops/bottoms so the cookies were smaller
If you try this recipe, try the egg instead of water substitute.
I followed the recipe exactly, and had no problems reproducing it. I was a little disappointed with the texture of the cookies, they were a little harder than I would have liked. The taste is quite bland, I think maybe an addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice etc might have been a wise choice.
Yummy! I read the reviews and tweaked a bit. I added cinnamon and an egg and cut back the flour to 1 cup. They were nice and moist. I filled up the cookies as hubby loves dates. I also added lemon juice to the date mixture while it was cooking. Definitely a keeper in my recipe box 🙂
The dough was blah and dry. Even tried putting an egg in it. Not worth making twice
Amazing! My first time baking with dates and it turned out great. I love this recipe and will definitely be using it again.
This recipe is a good one, however, the dough was a bit stiff so I added some ingredients that my grandmothers rolled, filled, cookie recipe has. It has made them much easier to handle with a little crunch around the edges and I used mincemeat instead of dates. Sour cream makes a rich, moist delicious cookie. Also try using the same amount of flour instead of the oats.
I found the dough fairly “flat” tasting and even though I rolled it out VERY thin..still baked up too thick and dry tasting..just like my Gram used to make!I’d prefer to find a way to make the dough a bit lighter and moister…these little devils could be used as weapons!Very tasty filling though.
Oh these are good! and easy to make!
Yum. I think next time I’ll add a bit of cinnamon to the dough and then roll out the dough and slice into squares in order to be more efficient.
I made these exactly as written. The date filling was very good, but the oatmeal cookies were hard and dry and didn’t have much flavor. I baked them at 350 degrees for 14-15 minutes. Maybe there should have been and egg or two in the cookie dough and possibly some vanilla extract. They were okay but I don’t think I would make them again.
Little date filled delights! Once i finally rolled the dough thin enough the cookies turned out amazing! although when the dough was thicker they turned out like tiny little biscuits which were kindof good too. try to use all of the filling it really makes a wonderful cookie
My family loved these cookies. I however, wasn’t prepared for the work they took to make. I’m still very much an amateur with baking. They tasted great though.
Excellent recipe! The cookie dough is so flavorful and combines really well with the sweet date compote. I think I made mine really big, but that let me put a lot of filling in each – which turned out super. Mmm. I will make these again. The only thing I changed is that I added some cinnamon and some lemon juice to the dates.
I don’t know what happened, but they were just okay. I followed the recipe to a T. I’d play around with it next time and try to tweak it.
For me, these cookies were just O.K., but my family and co-workers really liked them. The filling was good, but the cookie itself seemed to be missing something. They were a little time consuming to make, and I also had plenty of filling leftover. Not sure if I will make these again or try a different recipe.
Fantastic cookies although they are somewhat labor-intensive. Try adding an egg then you won’t need to add the extra tablespoons of water at the end. That makes them a little lighter and the dough easier to handle.
These were really good. The dough was a little difficult to roll, probably because of the oats. I used rasins instead of dates. I doubled the recipe of both the filling and the dough. I filled the cookies FULL with the raisins, and the ratio of dough to filling was perfect! Maybe others were skimpy with the filling, or maybe dates fill the cookie differently! No matter….these were great….thanks Gordon! Oh…I also added a little cinnamon to my raisin mixture…yum!
I remember my grandmother making these when I was a child. They rolled fine for me once I added the extra water recomended, but you do get a bit extra filling. A *GREAT* addition to this that grandma used to do is to frost the top cookie with a lightly peppermint flavored frosting. Sounds odd maybe but it’s a great flavor addition to the date and oatmeal!!
I could not get the dough to roll out.
These are great…but I had to much date filling leftover, I would reccomend doubling the cookie dough next time