Taste of History is a limited-run blog series exploring some of the old-school recipes found in archival collections. Each blog post will feature a different recipe found in the vault, recreated by staff at the archives with modern ingredients and tools. Today, with Valentine’s Day just behind us, we’re trying a recipe with a romantic name.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest evidence of the phrase “blind date” being used to describe a romantic meeting between strangers was in 1921. A cookbook in our collection, published by the Maple Leaf Milling Company and filled with recipes featuring Monarch cake and pastry mixes, includes a recipe for a teatime treat called “Blind Dates.” We do not know the date that this booklet was published, but evidently the phrase was in common usage by that time.
As you can see in the digitized recipe at the end of this post, the recipe called for a package of Monarch’s pie crust mix. However, I like to keep a supply homemade pastry on hand in my freezer, in case of a sudden craving for Saskatoon pie or sausage rolls. With the most challenging part of the recipe already taken care of, I had no difficulty acquiring the other two key ingredients: dates and walnuts.
Stuffing walnut pieces inside of dates was an oddly meditative task. The stickiness of the dates made it easy to secure them once they were stuffed. While the tiny pastries baked, I chopped a few more walnuts for the sprinkle and whisked together a light glaze using powdered sugar, melted butter, and lemon juice in place of the recommended cream – only because I realized I had no milk or cream in my fridge, and I did not feel prepared to venture out at -45 to get some! “Making do” with the ingredients I had on hand felt appropriate for making a vintage recipe.
I found that the dates dried out a little after baking at such a high temperature. However, they were an enjoyable little treat, not too sweet, easy to prepare, and thus, I imagine, a popular choice for party or club meetings back when the cookbook was printed.
Keep your eyes open for the continuation of Taste of History next month where we will be trying two recipes for egg coffee, one of which came from The Household Science Book of Recipes, published by the University of Toronto Press in 1933.
