Chocolate-Date Log

This is the kind of recipe your great-grandmother made every December with a meat grinder bolted to the kitchen counter. It’s been around forever because it works.

A full pound of pitted dates gets ground or processed until sticky and paste-like, then kneaded together with chopped walnuts, candied red cherries, and crystallized ginger. The natural sugar in the dates holds everything together like edible mortar.

Shaped into a thick log, chilled until firm, and then coated in melted semisweet chocolate and rolled in more chopped walnuts. Slice it thin and you get rounds that look like stained glass with bits of red cherry and amber ginger peeking through the dark chocolate shell.

At nearly two pounds, one log makes a generous gift or fills out a holiday candy platter with real character.

Kitchen Tips

• Use Medjool dates if you can find them. They’re softer and stickier than Deglet Noor, which means the log holds together better and has a richer caramel flavor.
• Chill the log thoroughly before coating. At least an hour in the fridge. A firm log is much easier to coat evenly with chocolate.
• Work quickly with the chocolate. Pour it over the log and use an offset spatula to spread it smooth before it starts to set, then roll in the walnuts immediately.
• Slice thin. This is intensely sweet and rich. Half-inch rounds are plenty.