To make Date-Leach
To make an excellent Date-Leach, take Dates, and take out the stones, and the white rind, and beat them with Sugar, Cinamon and Ginger, very finely; then work it as you would work a piece of paste, and then print them as you please.
(from The English Housewife)
- 250g icing sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 (or more) tsp ground ginger
- 50g dried dates, finely chopped
- 50mL water or rose water
Put the dry ingredients in the food processor first. This is important. Add the chopped dates slowly as you blend. You will end up with a slightly crumbly powder. Be sure to process it until there are no lumps. Then add rose water until it forms crumbs which can be mashed together into a paste when you grab some between your thumb and forefinger.
Sprinkle a pastry board thickly with icing sugar. Turn the crumbly mixture out onto the board and knead it until you get a stiff mouldable paste. If it's too sticky, add more sugar. If it's too dry (unlikely) add a drop more rosewater. But to be honest, it's hard to have this too dry. Err on the side of dryness if at all possible.
Taste test at this point, and feel free to add more spice. I find that lots of ginger works great with the date flavour.
Mould or shape the paste in whatever way you like. One easy way to make simple bite-sized pieces is to make a roll out a sausage shape then slice it. You can do almost anything with it though, up to and including moulding it into subtleties.
You can either serve them in this state, tossed in sugar, or iced. However, if you intend to transport them it's a good idea to dry them first. To dry them, place the pieces on a foil or paper covered tray and put them in a very very slow oven (I use 70 degrees C, the lowest setting on my oven). Make sure you leave space between them on the tray, as they will melt outwards somewhat in the heat.
Leave them for about 3 hours, then turn the oven off an leave it to cool. On no account handle these things when they're hot -- they turn to mush. When they're cold, you can turn them out and do with them as you please. Tossing them in icing sugar is a good idea for storage. Also, store them in the refrigerator if the weather is hot or humid.
Note that this recipe probably originally meant you to use fresh dates, but these are very hard to find these days. If you use fresh dates you probably don't need the water or rose water.
The other thing to be aware of with this recipe is that it can get very very sticky. Have lots of extra icing sugar on hand to avoid this if possible, and be prepared to make a huge mess!