Almond Butter Stuffed Dates

Use large, soft Medjool dates for best results. Almond butter should be smooth, not chunky. Can be made 1 day ahead. Bring to room temperature before serving.

The date palm is among the oldest domesticated plants on earth. Wikipedia confirms archaeological evidence of date cultivation in Mehrgarh, a Neolithic civilisation in what is now western Pakistan, from around 7000 BCE, and in eastern Arabia from approximately 5530 to 5320 BCE. Dates have been cultivated since ancient times across the arc from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, and the date palm was revered in ancient Mesopotamia as the "Tree of Life" — a plant that provided food, building materials, and shade in arid conditions where little else thrived. Ancient Egyptians made date wine and ate dates at the harvest. The Sumerians depicted date harvesting on clay tablets around 4000 BCE. Roman and Jewish texts from the first century BCE both document the beetroot's presence in the Mediterranean; dates appear throughout the Hebrew Bible, the Quran, and early Christian texts, cementing their sacred status across the three Abrahamic traditions. Medjool dates specifically trace their history to Morocco, where they were cultivated for Moroccan royalty and their guests, earning them the enduring title "King of Dates." The Medjool nearly disappeared from the world in the early 20th century when a disease threatened the Moroccan stock; in 1927 the USDA obtained eleven Medjool offshoots and transported them to the United States, initially to Nevada and later to California and Arizona, where they flourished in the desert climate. Today the great majority of Medjool dates sold in the United States are grown in the Coachella Valley and the Yuma area. Stuffing dates with nuts — almonds, walnuts, pistachios — has been a traditional Middle Eastern celebratory preparation for centuries, and the pairing of the date's dense caramel sweetness with salt and rich fat is a combination that has been intuited by cooks across the region for millennia.