A candy like cookie made in a skillet.
I'm always looking for ways to use dates, and everyone loves these, but I thought they were called "Date Balls". You can also roll them in dessicated coconut. (Actually, instead of rolling them, it's easier to put the powdered sugar or coconut into a ziplock bag and put 3 or 4 balls in at a time, then shake them to cover them evenly.)
Read MoreI'm always looking for ways to use dates, and everyone loves these, but I thought they were called "Date Balls". You can also roll them in dessicated coconut. (Actually, instead of rolling them, it's easier to put the powdered sugar or coconut into a ziplock bag and put 3 or 4 balls in at a time, then shake them to cover them evenly.)
Oh my!! These are really good! My only change was instead of rolling them in powdered sugar, which I am out of, I rolled them in finely ground coconut. It reduces the sweetness-you might want to try it with coconut. I love these and I know my husband, who can't stand coconut, will enjoy them also. Thanks Barbara, for the good recipe.
This will become a family Christmas tradition. I think they will have to be renamed though! :) Name: Skillet Cookies. Described: "A candy like cookie made in a skillet." Instructions - "In a saucepan. . ."
Oh my goodness, these were terrific! All in all, a good end product, and eating just two satisfied my sweet tooth all day. I had to melt the butter, then let cool a little before whisking in the egg yolks. I had trouble getting the ingredients to boil due to the thickness. Eager to make the balls, I nearly burned my hands making the first dozen! I let it cool a little bit and then made the rest but by the time I got to the last 2/3 cup of mix it was really difficult to form into balls because it was too cool. Next time I make these, I'll form all the balls, then roll in powdered sugar. A couple tips: use unsalted butter and don't make them larger than a two-bite ball -- they're very sweet and tasty! My kids ADORE them!
Wow these are exquisite! I was surprised at how good and addictive these are! I used pre-ground dates; about 1 cup. I also added extra rice crispies because I love the extra crisp. I honestly eyeballed most of the ingredients. I did cut down on the sugar. only used about half a cup, even a little less. I honestly don't know what the egg yolks add to it. I am sure they would have worked out just fine without them. Don't worry if you don't see any boiling action, the consistency is so thick, it doesn't really boil. As long as it looks pasty enough and starts to come off the sides of the pan when stirring, you know it's ready to remove from the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. For the icing sugar, I put some in a resealable bag and toss the balls in it. Very fast, and no clean-up! So easy to make, and so worth it! Perfect combination of chewiness, crispiness crunch and awsome taste! Thanks so much for this recipe!UPDATE****************i JUST MADE THESE AGAIN, AND THIS TIME I OMITTED THE EGG YOLK. I MADE ABOUT DOUBLE THE QUANTITY, BUT EYEBALLED EVERYTHING. I ALSO USED BROWN SUGAR, AND AGAIN, JUST ABOUT 1/2 CUP FOR THE WHOLE THING. I COATED SOME IN ICING SUGAR, BUT RAN OUT AFTER A FEW, SO DID THE REST IN COCONUT FLAKES. THE LACK OF YOLK MADE ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE! I LOVE THIS "COOKIE"!! IT'S SOOO HEALTHY, EASY AND YUMMMY. I WON'T EVER WORRY ABT THE EGG YOLK EITHER, WHICH MAKES NOW EVEN EASIER! THANK YOU :)
I have made a form of this cookie my whole life. I added almond estract(oops) instead of vanilla so I added slivered almonds instead of the pecans. My husband just loved this variation. I never take the time to make into balls. I just roll it,log style, into wax papter or parchment. Place into refrigerator, dust with powder sugar before slicing.
I love dates but for some reason I think these are just OK. Rated 5 stars because the recipe is perfect. Don't expect it to come to a full rolling boil. Start timing when it appears as if it's starting to boil. Don't burn your hands trying to roll. They roll nicely while the dough is still warm. The icing sugar stuck beautifully to the dough balls. I wonder if the person who had problems with the sugar not sticking was because the dough was still hot? The coconut didn't want to stick as well and I rolled those first. You can see a LOT of brown candy through the coconut but the icing sugar ones looks like a plate of snowballs. 1 Tablespoon of dough for each ball made 37 balls.
Yum! So good! I even made them vegan (dairy and egg allergies over here!) by subbing the butter for 1/4 cup non-hydrogenated margarine and 1/4 cup coconut oil and omitted the egg yolks completely. I also added about 1/2 cup brown sugar instead of the white sugar. So, so good! Next time I'm going to try using only coconut oil...I think it would give great flavor!
What a fantastic recipe! I have made this several times, using walnuts instead of pecans. I have found that the mixture stays together better by adding an extra 1/2 cup of rice krispies. This is my husband's favorite cookie.
Very good and easy to make. I have never had a date in my life but I figured, "Why not." I will definitely make these again. Oh yeah, I used coconut instead of powered sugar.
I have received mixed reviews with one, several of my friends commented on how sweet these are (myself included), while others said they are really good. I have decreased the sugar to half a cup. It's a good recipe and I will definitely make these again, but probably with less sugar and butter, as they feel kind of greasy when I was trying to shape them.
Loved these!! So buttery rich and sweet. I used less sugar than called for based on other reviews. Second time I made them I used 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup Splenda and they were plenty sweet and just as yummy.
I made a very large batch of these at work. This recipe x 16. The head chef hates dates. Won't touch them. He ended trying one and every time he walked by my work station he would take another one. Wasn't sure how they would go over with the clients but they were snapped up quick and asked for again. Easy to make and tastes good too.
I came across this when looking to use some dates. We lost power 5 days ago and so no xmas cookies were prepared. I just made these on the wood stove. OMG! These taste like pecan pie! I love them. The kids did not care for the texture, too young. We will be lucky if they make it through the day! I may add cocoa next time for some chocolatey flavor. SUPER!
Yum! Have made three times in a month. Good with any kind of nut. I use slightly less sugar to reduce sweetness as the dates add a lot. Have used rum extract also and was yummy... very quick to put together.. Thank you!
Very good cookie and so simple to make. This is a great recipe to fix with the kids.
My Mom made these when we were kids she rolled them in nuts or coconut after forming into balls. She had to put them in the freezer to keep them away from us kids.
I used the method from this recipe, but used dried cranberries instead of dates and slivered almonds instead of pecans. The recipe makes very good bite size cookies.
Wasn't sure I'd like these, but they were DELICIOUS and a hit at work! Easy to make too! I didn't change a thing.
very delicious recipe. i didn't have rice cereal so i used blueberry granola instead and canceled the vanilla. took the advice from a previous post to roll in coconut. and also added 1 Tbsp of cocoa powder to the cooking process to make wonderful chocolate-granola-datey goodness. thank you for sharing.
My mom has been making these since I was a little girl, 25+ years ago. She always called them "Yummies". Now I make them for my kids and I call them "Snowball cookies". We have a tradition of making these on school snow days. They really are fantastic! People who don't eat dates and don't like nuts will still gobble these up and rave. The butter and sugar made a caramel sauce that binds everything else together for maximum yumminess. Try these!
When I was a kid, my mom used to make these but she rolled them into the shape of a strawberry and you used to be able to buy these plastic green stems to put in them. I knew what a few of the ingredients were but she has since lost the recipe. I am so glad to have found it here. Great holiday cookie! Friends and family were really surprised by this one.
Fantastic! The first batch disappeared, everyone who has tried one has asked for the recipe. The taste sort of minds me of butter tarts. This will become a holiday tradition in our house.
Soooooooo delicious and easy. My family and neighbors went crazy. All want this recipe. Bravo!
Truly an excellent cookie. This is one of our traditional christmas cookies I grew up with. We always called them "humdingers."
We made these MANY Christmas holidays, with the addition of coconut. We call them Date-Nut Balls. OH SO GOOD!
Yummy! They are quick and simple to make and are a crowd pleaser. Grab yourself a glass of milk with these!
These were really good. Kids loved them. The only things I changed was that we didn't have dates so I used dried blueberries and I hate having so much white sugar in a recipe so I replaced it with all brown sugar and they turned out tasting GREAT. Thanks for the delish simple recipe!
I made these last holiday season for the many, many boxes of cookies I send to family and friends. So picture this: it's almost 11:00pm, I'm getting cookie boxes together for my daughters to deliver the next day. Boxes are ready, and cookies of all kinds are lined up on the buffet. I go to the very first of the cookie selection: these date balls. I go to reach into the container, and my hand finds only powdered sugar. What? Really? My husband, who is fast asleep at this point, has snacked his way through every one of them! It seems that whenever he was by the buffet, he grabbed one or two. Or three. Maybe more. This wasn't a single recipe either! I also made these for a Venetian Table at a recent wedding. There were nine kinds of cookies. These went first and fast. Yup. Five stars. No doubt about it.
Wow! this is tasty! I followed the recipe to a T. It has a nutty, similarity to pecan pie just not as rich. I couldn't tell when it was boiling and I was afraid I would burn it or cook it to hard ball stage. it was very sticky and I wasn't able to form into balls so I dropped spoonfuls into a Ziploc bag of powdered sugar. then I stuck them in the fridge. Since these are high fiber, be cautious how many you eat. I couldn't stop eating them, they were so good!
These are fabulous! I made 1/2 batch and used 2/3 cup Rice Krispies. For the sugar, I used a mix of white, brown, and Splenda. They will be regulars on my Christmas cookie list! Yum!
I make these most Christmases. I have used dried apricots & they were good too. Work quickly is the only word of advice I have
I made two versions - one with dates and walnuts and the other with apricots and pecans. I put the whole dried fruit along with coconut oil and sugar in my Blendtec and pulsed until it was the right consistency. After putting in the large pan, I added the egg yolks before turning on the heat. Boiled two minutes, pulled the pan off the heat and added the rice cereal (extra for more crunch) and the finely chopped nuts and stirred well. Let cool and then formed the balls and rolled in coconut I had also chopped finely in the blender. I didn't really measure the ingredients just put it together. The apricot batch was more moist and easier to form into balls but both versions were delicious and easy.
I subbed brown sugar (slightly less than called for) and a few extra dates. It gave the balls a wonderful caramel flavor. I used part pecans and part walnuts since that's what I had. They turned out very balanced in sweet and nutty flavors. I didn't roll in coconut since it's not my favorite. Easy to make and store. Nice to pop in your mouth for a quick sweety. I made them 1" balls.
I had lost this recipe and searched until I found one that I thought was close to my original recipe. It was lost but now it is found! This little cookie is a keeper and one you will be sure to use years to come!
I made it per the recipe- guests really liked it! It takes a while to boilt in step 1.
Yum! Yum! So delicious! I made some rolled in powdered sugar & some in unsweetened coconut... both taste fantastic & to be honest I don't prefer pecans, but LOVE these! I will definitely make them again ??
I made these tonight and found that they were the easiest and fastest cookies I've ever made. Hubby nearly made themselves sick because he just couldn't stop eating them. I decreased the sugar to 1/2 cup after first reading a few of the reviews and think I could have gotten away decreasing it a little bit more since the powdered sugar adds even momre sweetness to them but they weren't overpoweringly sweet just rich tasting. I can hardly wait to try them with coconut in place of the powdered sugar. Note: Just be sure to cook your butter, sugar and egg yolk mixture on a med/low heat so you don't burn the sugar. The mixture is to thick to have it boil and if you try you will surely burn your sugar ruining the whole thing. You just want to cook it long enough to make sure your sugar has completely melted so your cookie isn't grainy and be sure to stir your mixture as it's cooking nearly constantly. I will be adding these to my list of favorite cookies recipes.
My family always made these for the holidays, and instead of rolling in powdered sugar, they rolled them in coconut. When I was a teenager, I won a blue ribbon at the county fair with that recipe! Love these cookies!
Yummy! Used crushed rice Chex instead of rice crispiest. Definitely will be on my Christmas cookie list again next year.
