Name: Goat's Cheese Stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients: 20 dates; 6 slices smoked bacon; 1/3 cup goat cheese; 2-3 tablespoons red onion; seasoning (pepper, salt, fresh herbs) (to taste); 1/4 cup honey; 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

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Easy to make, these bacon wrapped dates are stuffed with Goat’s (or cream) cheese and red onion and dipped in a light vinaigrette sauce. Great snack to bake in 20 minutes and it’s a perfect dish to serve as a starter or a party food.

Why make this recipe?

Great appetiser or starter food
Fab combination of savoury and sweet taste

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Ingredients & Possible Substitutions

Dates

I’ve use normal dates, but you can use large medjool dates. They will take longer to cook, so just bear that in mind when choosing these.

Bacon

Smoked bacon is great flavour wise, but you can use unsmoked one too. Make sure it’s nice and lean and doesn’t have too much fat.

MORE BACON RECIPES

Goats Cheese

You can also use feta cheese or other firmer cheese. I love the combination of bacon, dates and cream cheese, but the cream cheese often ends up outside the dates as they bake (the goats cheese is much more stable).

I’ve sometimes also used my homemade cottage cheese, but again found it to be a slightly too runny for this recipe. It’s a great flavour wise though!

Red onion

Red onion has so much more flavour than white onion, but if you only have a regular onion or shallots, these will be fine too.

Seasoning (pepper, salt, fresh herbs) to taste

A simple salt and pepper is the easiest seasoning here, but you can also use my special everyday seasoning blend or add dried herbs into the seasoning too.

Honey

You will need a little bit of honey for the date’s sauce. I normally use regular honey, but sometimes also use maple or maple syrup substitutes or even golden syrup or anything you can swap with golden syrup in savoury recipes.

Balsamic vinegar

A basic balsamic vinegar is fine to use in this recipe, but you can also use slightly flavoured vinegars such as apple.

How to make Goat’s Cheese Stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon and vinegarette sauce

Dates

Preheat your oven to 180 C or 350 degrees and prepare a large baking tin or a baking tray and line it with a greaseproof paper.

Cut the red onion into smaller pieces and cook on a medium heat in a frying pan together with one teaspoon of butter. Make sure that the onion is completely done before removing it and cooling it down.

Mix the goat cheese and red onion together and add extra seasoning or herbs if you like.

Remove the pits from the dates and replace it with a teaspoon of the goats cheese mix.

Cut the bacon to smaller pieces so that they fit round the dates and wrap a piece around each date. Secure with a toothpick.

Bake your dates for about 20-25 minutes, until the bacon is done.

Balsamic Sauce

Mix together the balsamic vinegar and the honey and bring to a simmering in a small saucepan. Cook for few minutes until the mixture thickens a bit and reduces in volume.

Don’t cook it for too long, otherwise, it might set too much.

Note on the baking time

The baking time for these Goat’s Cheese Stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon depends on the size of your dates. The main thing that needs cooking is really the bacon that’s wrapped around, so you need to watch carefully and not to let the bacon to burn.

If you have smaller dates the baking time could be as little as 15 minutes, so do check the oven after 10-15 minutes to see who the bacon is browning.

How else you can make this recipe?

Every time I make this recipe, I change the stuffing (or filling if you like) slightly and the recipe always taste a bit different.

Goats cheese is great, but you can also use other firmer cheeses like feta or paneer cheese and change the herbs and spices. You can even leave out the stuffing together, if you prefer and just wrap the dates in bacon strips only.

Allergies, dietary requirements

Nut free
Gluten-free
Not suitable for vegan or vegetarian diets
Contains dairy

What’s the best way to serve the bacon dates?

These are great as appetisers, starters or finger food at family gatherings or parties. The bacon wrapped dates with sauce are also great for small appetites or fancy snacks between meals.

The balsamic sauce is perfect dip to serve with the dates, but you can also add some cranberry sauce, unsweetened apple sauce or other types of dips.

My top tips on making this recipe successfully the first time round

Choose nice big dates to start with

Smoked bacon works great with this recipe as a flavour

If you are adding red onion to the goats cheese mix, make sure it’s not too soggy (tap a paper napkin on the top if if feels too wet before mixing in)

Wrap the bacon tightly around the dates and make sure that you secure it with a toothpick

Can this recipe be made in advance?

You are welcome to make the stuffed dates in advance and then just reheat them in the oven or microwave for few minutes.

They will be fine if you make them a 12-24 hrs in advance, but do keep them covered in the fridge and reheat them just before serving.

How to store this recipe?

The stuffed dates are best eaten on the same day, but if you have any leftovers you can keep them covered in your fridge for 2-3 days maximum.

These Goat’s Cheese Stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon are not really suitable for freezing, because they contain different textures (mainly the goat’s cheese) and they defrost the cheese just doesn’t hold it’s shape.