chocolate date ball
The traditional rangeena cookie from Qatar is delicious, but also very sweet and sticky. A bit too much for a few of my testers. For my variation, I combined the original flavors with some bitter and fresh undertones. I ground the original cookies coarsely and mixed in some nice dark chocolate, grated fresh ginger and some grated orange rind. I then rolled little balls from the mixture and dipped them into melted chocolate. The result is a deliciously soft ball with crunchy pieces of nut coated in crispy dark chocolate. This chocolate date ball is real treat!
chocolate date ball
for about 25 cookies
125 grams (1 cup) flour
175 grams (1⅔ cups) ghee, at room temperature
25 grams (2½ tbs) of powdered sugar (or to taste)
pinch of salt
½ tsp cardamom powder
½ tsp cinnamon powder
± 10 fresh (Medjoul) dates,
120 grams (1 cup) of walnuts
60 grams (½ cup) of pistachio nuts
grated rind of 1 organic orange
Piece of ginger of ± 1 cm, grated
200 grams / 1 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate (at least 70%),
Toast the flour in a frying pan until it turns light brown.
Take the flour out of the pan and sieve into a bowl. Let cool down.
Add the ghee, the salt, the cardamom and the nutmeg.
Quickly bring together into a ball of dough, spread out over a plate and leave to cool in the fridge.
Roast the walnuts in a dry pan and chop them roughly.
Stone the dates and chop the pistachio nuts roughly.
Blend all ingredients with 50 grams / 2 heaped tbs of the chocolate into a course mixture in the food processor.
Roll small walnut size balls from the mixture and leave to cool in the refrigerator.
Melt the rest of the chocolate and let cool down slightly.
Dip the balls in the chocolate, sprinkle with some extra pistachio nuts and let them cool and harden. You may need more chocolate if you coat the balls thickly.
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