One of the recipes I found stuffed in my mom’s recipe box was on notebook paper that I recognized as being from my paternal grandmother’s recipe binder. The handwriting did not quite look like my grandmother’s, but it was close enough that I assume it was either her or one of her sisters who wrote it.
The Coconut-Date Balls recipe was definitely one my grandmother would have collected. She loved dates. I vividly remember her stuffed dates and date pudding at Christmas. However, I must admit that my recollection of this recipe was fuzzy at best….until I tasted it. I remembered its wonderful taste.
Not only is this an easy recipe, it is easily made gluten-free as well. Just make sure you use gluten-free crispy rice cereal and coconut. Coconut does not normally contain gluten even if you use a sweetened type, but it is always worth a look on the packaging to make sure or just stick to natural, unsweetened coconut.
When I started to write this article, I briefly debated whether these are classified as cookies or candies. I decided that they were more of a candy. They are small sweet bites that easily satisfy my sweet tooth…sounds like candy to me. This “candy” just also happens to be rich in fiber, potassium, and magnesium…in addition to the sugar.
The fact that my grandmother had to have last made this recipe more than 40 years ago (she would be 114 if she were still alive), but I still have it to pass along today is very special to me. In fact, it is the reason I first started A Simple Home Cook.