Date Rolls

Have you ever had a really good date roll? I mean, a reaaally good one that resembles a freshly made, light and fluffy gourmet marshmallow that melts in your mouth? Me either. I've tried a date roll here and there but these brown little mushy balls transformed into lovely pieces of tender pillows to me when a good friend shared a piece of her incredibly fresh date roll that she regularly gets at the Park Slope Food Coop. (I really have no intention of joining, but the date rolls almost had me. They were THAT good).

It was so drastically different from all date rolls I've ever had before, its almost an entirely different animal. I'm not planning on being a member of the Coop any time soon so I searched and searched for a date rolls of all kinds out there but none were ever the same. Then one day I had this idea of making my very own! You can find this recipe (if you could call it that) widely available online but here's some of my notes and tips I found along the way.

 You will need a food processor to make these. I just don't see how it would work to a practical person otherwise. I have a mini food processor, so I had to make my batch rather small. For a regular-sized food processor, you could probably fit in 2-3 cups at a time if you so desire.

Date Rolls

1 1/2 cups of pitted dates*

1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut flakes

1. Give your dates a rough chop so they are in smaller pieces
2. Toss them in a food processor and whirl for about a minute. During this process, you may find that the dates will clump up and form a sticky ball that will just whirl and rotate around your food processor. If this happens, carefully take the back of a fork and smush out the ball by smearing it around the outer edges of your food processor. I had to do this 2-3 times. Be careful not to get the fork caught on the blades. Continue whirling. 
3. You'll know when you're done when your dates has a dense but smooth spreadable consistency (much like smooth peanut butter) and the color has lightened from having the air whipped in them. My entire batch would eventually splay on the outer edges of the food processor leaving the blade to spin empty air. 
4. Scoop out the date paste into a bowl. In a medium sized bowl, pour in the shredded coconut. Now you are ready to make the date rolls and this is where things get messy. I like to spritz my finger tips with a little canola oil to prevent some stickiness. I also like to get all the rolling out of the way in one step so that you don't end up with coconut-frosted fingers after handling each ball. 
5. Take about a tablespoon-sized amount of the paste and roll into a ball or log. Drop the ball/log carefully into the bowl bedded with coconut. Continue to do this, placing the balls so that they are not touching in the bowl until there is no more paste left. 
6. You may want to wash your hands at this point. Carefully roll each of the balls in the coconut flakes until they are evenly covered in them. Store in air-tight container.

*I supposed you could make however much your heart desires but if they're meant for you and you alone, I wouldn't recommend making too many of these at a time as they can get stale and lose moisture.

Storage: as far as I know, these keep indefinitely, the way that date rolls do. They can become stale though, so store them properly in an air-tight container. I put them in a mason jar. They look pretty that way too.