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Bacon-wrapped dates fresh out of the oven on crinkled parchment, the bacon baked golden-crisp around the soft dates

2-Ingredient Bacon Wrapped Dates

2-Ingredient Bacon Wrapped Dates

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Bacon wrapped dates might be the easiest thing I make all year, and that's exactly why they show up every holiday season. Two ingredients — a package of whole Medjool dates and a package of bacon — and you've got the appetizer everybody circles back to before the real food's even out.

The only real trick is cutting each slice of bacon in half crosswise so you're not drowning one little date in a whole strip. If you want to get fancy, pit the dates and tuck an almond or a little goat cheese in there before you wrap it shut. I do them plain half the time and stuffed the other half, and nobody has ever once complained.

Bake them at 400 until the bacon's got some color, then give them a few minutes before you eat one. The inside stays lava-hot way longer than you'd think, and I say that from experience. We eat these for breakfast, we eat them for snacks, we eat them any time a tray of something savory needs to happen fast.

The Recipe

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Cut each slice of bacon in half crosswise so you have a shorter piece for every date.

  3. Pit the dates. If you're stuffing them, tuck a whole almond, a little goat cheese, or both into the center of each one.

  4. Wrap each date snugly in a piece of bacon and set it seam-side down on the baking sheet so it holds its shape while it bakes.

  5. Bake 15–25 minutes, depending on how your oven runs, until the bacon has good color all over.

  6. Let them cool a few minutes before you dig in — the inside holds heat a lot longer than the outside lets on.

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