444 date recipes

Low-fat four-spice bundt cake with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, plump golden raisins, and buttermilk. An egg-white-lightened tube cake finished with orange syrup and fresh orange slices.

Lester's fruitcake is a heirloom holiday loaf: pounds of candied fruits, figs, dates, raisins, pecans, and walnuts bound in spiced molasses batter. Slow-baked, brandy-soaked, aged a month.

A diabetic-friendly spice cake made with whole wheat flour, sour cherries, dates, and applesauce instead of refined sugar. Warmly spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Creamy cottage cheese and cream cheese filling flavored with dates and orange zest in an oat crust, topped with glazed apricot halves.

Baked granola gorp trail mix with chow mein noodles, peanuts, dried apricots, raisins, and chocolate chips. Crunchy, sweet, salty, and totally customizable.

A traditional European-style fruit cake -- Although fruitcakes have a bad reputation, this one is *excellent*.

Festive holiday fruitcake loaded with pecans, candied pineapple, dates, golden raisins, and candied citrus peel. Laced with orange liqueur and aged up to three weeks.

English rocks cookies packed with candied cherries, candied pineapple, dates, and pecans in a spiced brown sugar-buttermilk batter. A dense, fruity holiday cookie baked low and slow.

Easier to work with. The original recipe called for brandy or grape juice, but I found that if you substitute the orange juice concentrate, it has a nicer flavour.

Christmas Lizzies are boozy Southern fruitcake cookies loaded with candied cherries, raisins, dates, pecans, and citrus zest, soaked in whiskey. Make them weeks ahead and drizzle with spirits to age.

Invisible oatmeal cookies: small, soft drop cookies packed with raisins, chopped dates, pecans, warm cinnamon, and nutmeg. Called "invisible" because they disappear from the cookie jar fast.

Buttery spritz cookie bars filled with a date, candied cherry, and nut filling flavored with orange zest. Pressed through a cookie press and cut into bars.

Caloric, filling and tasty bars, these bars give a flavorful and filling treat along the trail.

Christmas compote jam blends dried figs, dates, apricots, three nuts, and candied orange in a quince-juice base spiced with cinnamon, clove, cardamom, and star anise. A three-day European holiday preserve worth every step.

Frosted spice fruit cookies are old-fashioned molasses-spice rolled cookies loaded with walnuts, golden raisins, and dates, finished with an orange juice glaze. Holiday cookie tin staple.

Rich no-bake fruitcake loaded with dates, candied fruit, cherries, nuts, and marshmallows in a spiced whipped cream base. No oven needed for this easy holiday classic.