Devils on Horseback
This recipe is endlessly adaptable and very forgiving of substitutions. We prefer a mellow, English-style blue cheese in this recipe, but it you want something stronger, go for it. Marcona almonds add a nice crunch to these bite-sized appetizers, but if you can't find them or don't like them, feel free to just use a touch more cheese.
Ingredients
- 18 medjool dates
- ¼ pound blue cheese
- 18 Marcona almonds optional
- 9 strips thin-cut bacon about 6 ounces, each sliced in half
Instructions
- Heat oven to 500°F. Use a paring knife to cut a slit into the side of each date and remove the pit. Remove the rind from the blue cheese (if necessary), and in a medium bowl mash blue cheese with a fork to make a lumpy paste.
- Spoon out a heaping teaspoon of blue cheese, and use your palms to roll it around an almond, so that the almond is completely covered. Stuff the cheese-covered almond into a date where the pit used to be. Repeat until all dates are stuffed.
- Wrap each stuffed date with a half-strip of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place on a baking rack over a rimmed sheet pan and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbling and bacon is cooked through and crispy.
Amy Scheuerman
Amy Scheuerman—culture's former web director—spent eight years in North Carolina where she developed a love of barbecue and biscuits before moving up north to get a degree in nutrition. She now works at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
