Date Rolls - Sugar free and Healthy

I had been planning to make Date rolls for a long time but never really got into it. Last week my sister got a box of date rolls from a famous sweet shop in Mumbai. We relished the sweets very much. This gave me an impetus to make my own Dates rolls.

Dates are full of vitamins and minerals. 100 Gms of dates contain about 7.6 g of dietary fiber, 572mg of potassium, 124mg of calcium, 74.4mg of sodium, 21.2mg of Vitamin C and 8.8mg of iron (approx. values). When combined with nuts, it becomes healthier and more nutritious.
Dates are chopped and cooked with some ghee/coconut oil. If the dates are hard, soak them in hot water prior to this step. Chopped toasted nuts are added to the mixture. The mixture is shaped into logs and rolled in toasted poppy seeds and kept in the refrigerator to firm up. The logs are cut into discs

This is sugar-free, gluten-free recipe. Vegans may substitute butter with coconut oil.

Date Rolls also make a  guiltfree dessert to satiate sweet cravings the healthy way!

Date  Roll

Ingredients

• 500 Gms dates
• ½ cup almonds
• ½ cup cashew nuts
• ¼ cup pistachios
• ½ cup poppy seeds
• 2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil (vegan option)

Instructions

1. Soak the dates in hot water. 
2. Drain. Remove the seeds and chop the dates finely. 
3. Place the almonds on a baking tray. Toast the almonds till fragrant and browned (Set the oven temperature to 100 degrees and set the timer to 10 minutes.). 
4. Chop the nuts coarsely. 
5. Transfer the chopped dates to a thick bottomed wok or a non-stick pan.
6.  Add ghee/coconut oil and cook on a low flame. In about fifteen minutes, the dates will become soft. Mash them with the ladle. 
7. Cook till the mixture becomes smooth and uniform. 
8. Turn off the gas. Add nuts and mix well. 
9. Make rolls of one one-inches diameter each from this mixture. 
10. Place these rolls in a plate containing poppy seeds. Coat the rolls with poppy seeds. 
11. Keep the plate in the refrigerator for an hour. The rolls will become hard. With a sharp knife, cut out discs about of 1mm thickness. 
12. Store in an airtight container.