Peanut Butter Stuffed Medjool Dates

These stuffed dates are total hedonism in a bite…it’s near impossible to stop at one. As a nutritionist, I’m often asked for nutritious AND delicious sweet snack or dessert ideas. These are so darn simple that they arguably even need a recipe!

Medjool dates (the date variety featured here) are celebrated for their caramel-toffee taste and soft chewy texture. They feature regularly on Nourish & Tempt, and star in the most popular recipe on the blog – this banana bread with dates!

In the below stuffed date recipe, they serve as the perfect hand-to-mouth vehicle for a glorious trio of nut butter, dark chocolate and flakey salt.

Ingredients Needed

• Medjool dates. In New Zealand, these are typically found in the fresh produce section of the supermarket. They’re large, dark and sold dried, not dehydrated – making them soft and sticky. They come pitted (pit removed) or with the pit still in which you have to remove yourself (super easy to do).
• Peanut butter. A pantry essential, at least in my kitchen. Opt for a natural peanut butter featuring just peanuts and salt on its ingredients list – it’s all that’s needed👌.
• Dark chocolate for its bitterness, texture and deliciousness. Go for a high percentage dark chocolate. If you’re vegan or dairy free, check the ingredients panel for the presence of milk products – most true dark chocolates are dairy-free.
• Flakey sea salt. Salt is one of my favourite ingredients in the kitchen. It has its own particular taste, while both balancing and enhancing the flavours of other ingredients. Flaky sea salt is great as a finishing salt (a salt not used in cooking), because of its light, fine and crunchy texture.

If you have a peanut allergy, you could substitute peanut butter for another nut butter. If you want a nut-free version, tahini is ace🤙.

Kitchen Tips

• Remove the pit, if not pitted already. If your date still has the pit it in (a very hard large seed that’s horrible to accidentally bite!), extract it first. Simply make a slit down one side of your date with a knife, from top to bottom, and gently pull apart the flesh to expose and take out the pit.
• Make a cozy crevice. Pit or not, you’ll need the middle crevice for your nut butter. Slice, as above, to expose the inner middle, being careful not to slice all the way through. In each side there will be a cozy nook to help house your peanut butter.
• Load it up. The humble teaspoon is my tool of choice for filling dates with nut butter. If filling many in one go, a reusable piping bag is helpful for a tidy and easy job.

Nutrition Information

Medjool dates are celebrated for their natural sweetness. They’re a good source of dietary fibre and an array of minerals, like potassium, manganese and copper.

Being a dehydrated fruit, their natural sugars are more concentrated. However, they’re also rich in dietary fibre, which slows the release of these sugars into your bloodstream. This is so much so that they’re considered a low glycemic fruit!

By pairing dates with slow-to-be-digested protein, fibre and fat-rich nut butter, this helps further reduces blood sugar spikes.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy this recipe. Are you a peanut butter fan? Try these salted chocolate peanut butter jelly cups.