Dates Mascarpone Olive Oil Anise Cookies

We bought a big box of dates a month ago. My original plan was to make some mamoul, however it did not happen and dates were sitting in the pantry. My hubby when ever goes into the pantry will say you see the box of dates is here, try it and I will be happy if it is eaten and not thrown into the garbage after some time. As usual I would nod my head and say I am going to make something with them. Last week I went out to shop at Whole Foods, a specialty store; I love to shop there, and the aim was to find whole white wheat flour. 

Yes I did finally buy them. Now I can experiment with white whole wheat flour. While leaving the store my little one started crying, so in order to change her attention I took a pamphlet of Whole Foods and gave it to her. Poor girl (perhaps irritated by our shopping) after getting into car stopped crying and put aside the pamphlet and started sleeping. When I glanced through the pamphlet I saw a recipe which I liked and decided to give it a try. It was written as savory crackers. My hubby also immediately agreed on it as it is savory one. However one thing I didn’t like way was about using 3 eggs. I was not in a mood to use eggs and I had some homemade mascarpone that needed to be used. 

I had read that anise and dates goes well, so they both got a place in cookie ingredients, and then came olive oil, orange zest and black pepper. It made very tasty cookies with a sweet taste (without any added sugar), a tinge of black pepper, goodness of mascarpone along with aroma of anise. Yes it is keeper recipe, and as it is Christmas time; I decided to make star shaped cookies. This cookie is sweet on its own, and if you still need sugary cookies, you can add some extra sugar. Here goes the recipe. 

One year ago: chegodilu/ Deep fried rice flour rings

Print recipe from here

What you need

All purpose flour: 1 cup (I used unbleached flour)
Chopped dates: ½ cup
Black pepper: ¼ teaspoon
Baking powder: 1/8 teaspoon
Anise seed: ¼ teaspoon
Orange zest: 1 teaspoon (Zest of one orange)
Mascarpone cheese: 1/5 cup (I used homemade)
Olive oil: 1/5 cup
Water: ¼ cup
Milk: 2 tablespoon






How I made

Preheat oven to 350F. Line  two baking   tray or cookie sheet with aluminum foil and set aside.

Pulse ½ cup flour with dates in food processor or mixer grinder until dates gets finely chopped, transfer to a large bowl. 

Stir in remaining flour, orange zest, salt, pepper and baking powder. Mix in mascarpone cheese and oil into the center and stir until everything get incorporated. It resembles bread crumbs, to this gradually add water and knead to form soft dough. 

Wrap the dough with cling wrap and set aside in refrigerator for about 30 minutes. 

After 30 minutes, knead dough once again and transfer to work bench and flatten them using a roller. Found this part was sticky so used a Ziploc bag and pressed a small ball of dough in between them using a roller to form a thin sheet of ¼ inch thickness. 

Cut them using star shaped cookie cutter and arranged on prepared baking sheet. Brush the top of cookies with milk and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until they become golden brown. 

Remove from the baking sheets and set aside to cool in cooling rack. Once it cooled, store it in airtight container.  Since cookies were  finished within  two days  I don't know the shelf life of them.

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Yield: 25 cookies
Verdict: Addictive
Will you make it again: yes I will

This delicious cookies going to

December cook off recipes by  Kitchen Corners

It is time to Jingle again hosted by  Assankhana

Celebrate sweets;Sugarless event hosted by  Sara's corner  originally started by Nivedita.