Healthy Strawberry Cream Cheese Stuffed Dates
My kids spotted these at a farmers market stand and I paid way too much for six of them, so I went home and figured it out.
Three ingredients, no cooking, and they hold up on a plate without falling apart, which is the real reason I keep making them.
Healthy Strawberry Cream Cheese Stuffed Dates
Sweet Medjool dates filled with tangy cream cheese and fresh strawberry, ready in 15 minutes with no oven required.
Ingredients
- 12 Medjool dates , pitted
- 4 oz cream cheese , softened to room temperature
- 1 tbsp honey , plus more to drizzle
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 fresh strawberries , hulled and diced small
- 1 pinch flaky sea salt , for finishing
Instructions
Tips & Notes
- Cream cheese at room temperature is not optional here. Cold cream cheese will tear the date skin when you try to pipe or spoon it in.
- If your dates feel dry or stiff, soak them in warm water for 5 minutes and pat completely dry before filling.
- Dice the strawberries as uniform as you can manage. Uneven chunks make the filling lopsided and harder to eat in one bite.
- These can be made up to 24 hours ahead and stored covered in the refrigerator. Add the honey drizzle and salt right before serving.
Nutrition per serving · estimated
Why Medjool Dates and Not Any Other Kind
Medjool dates are the only variety soft enough to split open without cracking into pieces. They have a natural caramel flavor that works with the tang of the cream cheese instead of competing with it. Deglet Noor dates are too firm and too dry for this, and they do not taste the same.
Buy them with the pits in if you can. Pre-pitted dates are often drier because they have been handled more and lose moisture through the opening.
Getting the Strawberry-to-Filling Ratio Right
The proportion that actually works is roughly one part strawberry to two parts cream cheese filling by volume. More strawberry than that and the filling gets pushed out when you take a bite. Less strawberry and the date just tastes like cheesecake, which is fine but not what this is.
If your strawberries are very ripe and sweet, reduce the honey in the filling to half a tablespoon. The balance between sweet date, tangy cream cheese, and bright strawberry is the whole point of this recipe and it is worth tasting the filling before you fill anything.
