Date Sweets

Good afternoon, everyone!  I hope the Saturday sunshine is treating you well and that you're SOAKING UP all of God's grace and love today. In honor of the gorgeous weather and all the tasty treats that come along with this season, I'm going to let you in on ANOTHER of our family's FAMOUS favorites- date sweets. Don't you just love dates? They're totally strange, and gourmet and in a league of their own. Dates are BIG in the Syrian, Lebanese, Middle Eastern food culture, especially for desserts since they're so sweet. So if you've never entered into the world of middle eastern food, here's a sneak peek into a really fun treat.

Now, I did not make these OR photograph this process... I received an e-mail from my dad saying, "check it out- mom and I made date sweets this morning." SO HERE THEY ARE, MY PARENTS, PHOTOGRAPHING EVERY STEP OF THEIR DATE SWEET MAKING PROCESS TOGETHER! (really- the greatest, most fun, hysterically lively parents ANYone could ever DREAM of having) THANK YOU, mom and dad, for sending these my way and for being so darn cool! :)

Prepping the ingredients

(Mahlab is a typical spice used in middle eastern foods- ground sour cherry seeds)

unsalted butter

walnuts

chopped dates

and whisky

the filling

making the dough

rolling it out

stuffing and designing

in they go

out they come

powdered sugar dusted

Perfection.

Oh my goodness... these look DELICIOUS! And way to go mom and dad! What a process! Tata ( [TAY-tuh] arabic for grandmother) would be PROUD! (and also probably showing us we didn't do something exactly right... and she'd be correct) ;) I purposefully didn't share this exact recipe with you, one, because I know some of you are thinking "what on earth? date sweets?" and two, because it's pretty difficult. Not because it's REALLY hard steps, but because it's a lot of UNUSUAL steps. SO, if any of you WANT this recipe... I'll be happy to share it, but just e-mail me directly and we'll make it happen that way.

sidney@lovegrows.org

THANK YOU ALL for allowing me to indulge in my Lebanese heritage again. I hope this is an interesting and unique spot in your day AND your blog roll.

LOTS OF LOVE!