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Dessert

Cocoanut Dates

A sweet treat of dates filled with coconut fondant and coated in bon bon cream, topped with an almond.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Cocoanut Dates

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Split the dates and remove the seeds.

  2. Knead the grated coconut into the fondant.

  3. Roll the mixture into small pieces to fill the dates and close them.

Coat and finish

  1. Melt the bon bon cream in a bon bon kettle.

  2. Dip each date in the melted cream.

  3. Once cold, cut each date in half and place a small almond in the cream end.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Dates + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Dates + coconuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Coconut + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,223 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dates
Provide the soft, sweet fruit casing that holds the filling.
Fondant
Gives the filling a smooth, sweet, firm body that holds its shape.
Fresh grated coconut
Adds moist chewy texture and a coconut aroma to the filling.
Bon bon cream
Forms a coating that sets firm and glossy as it cools.

The step that matters

Cool the dipped dates before cutting. The coating is fat-based and sets firm as it cools. Cutting before it is fully cold can smear the coating and squeeze the soft filling out of the date.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, cream, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, cream, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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