Stuffed Dates (with Morgenland and Keimling)

The Advent season is on!

The Advent season is like the most beautiful time of the year, I think! In Germany we celebrate the four Sundays before Christmas, the advent Sundays, by lighting the candles on the advent wreath, drinking tea, eating clementines and sweets. Sweets... yeah, most people like to eat gingerbread, cookies, and all kinds of unhealthy stuff but as most of you know, I am this always-trying-to-be-healthy person and I always like to look for healthy alternatives. And usually I also find some ;) 

In the coming weeks, until Christmas, I would like to show a you a few alternatives to the usual Christmas cookies; alternatives that are more healthy, less processed and vegan, of course. 
 
I want to start with stuffed dates! I love dates! I always did; but since I went to Iran, I am somehow obsessed... I had the best dates of my life in Iran and I came back home with some 4 or 5 kilo of dates in my luggage. Most of them are already eaten! Fortunatly, I got some Deglet Nour dates from Morgenland which are almost as good as the ones from Iran. The dates from Morgenland are from Algeria and I actually they are the best Deglet Nour dates I have ever tried; yet its very hard to compete with the fresh dates from Iran of course ;) 

Anyway, I got the idea to make stuffed dates because I got those delicious stuffed dates from Keimling and also some delicious cocoa beans, so I had everything I needed to make a whole lot of stuffed dates. But since its Christmas, I wanted to make more than only dates with cocoa beans; I ended up with three different kinds:

Dates stuffed with cocoa beans and covered in dark chocolate (low in sugar!)
Dates stuffed with marzipan and almonds and covered in dark chocolate
Dates stuffed with nougat and hazelnuts and covered in dark chocolate

Sure, they are not 100% healthy, but they are definetly healthier than all those highly processed sweets that you can find in the shops right now. But lets not discuss health but rather taste! 

My favorite ones are the one with marzipan and almonds - I took one almond, a little bit of marzipan and stuffed the date with it. For the two other kinds I did the same with respectively the cocoa beans and with the nougat. All three kinds are beyond amazing, but I am just a huge fan of almonds, so the marzipan almonds one are the ones I like beeeeeest :)

 
After stuffing the dates, I covered them in chocolate, I added an almond on top of those with marzipan, a hazelnut on those stuffed with nougat and some cinnamon on top of those with the cocoa bean. Like that it was easy to differntiate, even though they were all covered with chocolate :) 

In case you are looking for some healthier alternatives for Christmas, you should really try those stuffed dates! You can find your high quality organic ingredients at Keimling and at Morgenland. Its very easy to make stuffed dates and they are just incredibly good! Really, they are like the most delicious chocolate candy ever, even though they are 80% date and only like 5% chocolate. You can feast on these dates without feeling guilty and they make a great gift for your loved ones!

I made a total of 180 stuffed dates! I think I could totally eat all of them by myself in the coming weeks, up to Christmas. But actually, I will give most of them away as gifts. My husband asks me like every hour if he is allowed to steal one but I told him he should make some Christmas sweets by himself and rather eat those (such a mean wife I am). So he made coconut macaroons which are veeeery very good too!   
 

What is your favorite Christmas cookie? What do you always make in the advent season? What would you like to try this year for the first time? I would love to know!

I will show you a few other easy recipes that I make as an alternative to Christmas cookies in the coming weeks, and I hope I will be able inspire a few of you to eat some slightly more healthy sweets this Christmas season :) 


Sending much love!