Father's Day is this Sunday, which naturally makes me think of bacon. So I decided to take action.
Dates are starting to show up in the produce department. I found mine at Costco last week. And I bought their big brick of Raskas Cream Cheese (to use in another recipe, but it is a BIG brick). It is THE BEST cream cheese I've had. I also had some cashews leftover from my trailmix recipe. Adding some thick-cut bacon and honey to the mix, and I was ready to rock.
Pit the dates. Make a thin slice lengthwise to open, then the pit is pretty loose in there. Pull out each pit and discard it.
Next, put a 1-2 teaspoon slab (depending on the size of the date) of cream cheese in each opened date. Then push a cashew into the cream cheese on each one.
Now pre-cook the bacon a bit by placing it between a couple of paper towels on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on high for 1 minute.
Here is the bacon after the pre-cook step. It is not crispy at all. It should be just starting to curl up at the ends.
Cut the strips of bacon into halves or thirds. I did mostly halves, but thirds for some of my skinnier dates. It isn't an exact science. Wrap the dates in the bacon and secure through the middle with a toothpick.
Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You can skip the parchment, but I recommend it if you have it. Makes clean-up much easier.
Put a squirt of honey on each bacon-date roll. This glaze is SO yummy when it bakes.
Bake for 7 minutes at 450°. Turn over each one and return to the oven to bake 5-7 minutes more, until crispy on the edges.
Tastes divine. And has a fair amount of redeeming value--that's whole fruit in there...whole milk in the cheese... a whole nut... and a whole bunch of yummy.
Partying at these pages:
I'm really wishing I had the ingredients to make this right now! Since I don't, I'm pinning it for later ;) Looks so good! (Found you at the Weekend Retreat link-up)
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