Thanksgiving: Honeyed Dates with Bacon

I like to think of this as L's signature dish. It's always popular when we bring it to parties. It's also exceptionally messy to clean the baking pans afterwards. I forgot to line them with tinfoil and paid for it with lots and lots of scrubbing. Definitely line your pans with tinfoil if you give this a go. You will not regret it.

We've tried several variations on this dish but this one was particularly successful. L used to make this with blue cheese filling, but that contains gluten.

Ingredients:

• 6 dozen dates (people often like to use Medjool dates, but L prefers a smaller, drier variety)
• a small package of plain chevre
• crushed hazelnuts (or a different nut of your choice)
• 3 lbs bacon
• toothpicks
• honey 

Directions:

1. Use a paring knife to slit one long side of each date and remove the pit. You will be inserting filling through this opening.

2. Prepare the filling as follows: crush the nuts (we filled a ziploc bag with hazelnuts and used a hammer to crush them) and mix them in a bowl with the chevre. I am not quite sure of the proportions we used... it was probably about one cup of nuts. You can use your judgement here. 

3. Using a small spoon or your fingers, scoop filling into each date. 

4. Cut the bacon slices in half width-wise and wrap a half-strip around each date. Secure the bacon with a toothpick.

5. Drizzle the dates with honey and bake for 20 min. at 375. Remove the pans, flip the dates, and drizzle the other side with honey. Continue to bake for another 20 min. or until done.