Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese Recipe - Pinch of Yum
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Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese

65 reviews / 4.7 average

Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese – a simple 3-ingredient appetizer that will blow you away! Enjoy with a crowd of friends!

Well well well well well. What have we here? To my hungry eyes, this looks like bacon-wrapped dates: soft, sweet Medjool dates stuffed with creamy, tangy goat cheese wrapped in salty, smoky bacon and baked to crispy-soft perfection.

Years ago I decided to start a dinner club. I invited a few friends over for dinner, and we all made or brought something delicious and then got overly personal in the best way by talking for hours through dinner and drinks and dessert, and then I invited everyone to do it all over again the next month. Repeat x forever because I love it that much. If you’ve ever thought about doing something like this, let me just say: now is your time. Invite, eat, connect, and be glad you did it. ♡

Prefer To Watch Instead Of Read?

Bacon Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese on a toothpick.

Why Bacon Wrapped Dates Are So Good

One of my friends brought these bacon-wrapped dates as an appetizer during our very first DCM –> dinner club meeting –> because sometimes life is hard and I can’t be more creative than that with a dinner club name. Come on, you guys, just GIVE ME A BREAK.

We all bellied up to the peninsula in our old kitchen and she unwrapped the foil from the Bacon-Wrapped Date plate and BAM. They disappeared. So awesome, so alarming, and so right.

The soft, melty goat cheese inside the warm, plumped up date (how much do you like it when I say plumped up date? mixed feelings here) wrapped in the little bite-sized pieces of bacon was the absolute perfect three-way combo for our food-cray group of girls.

Obsessed doesn’t even touch it.

Bacon Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese on toothpicks.

Just Three Ingredients

Now what I want you to do is this: go to the store and pick up these three ingredients:

  • Bacon
  • Goat cheese
  • Dates

Make these bacon-wrapped dates and try them. I KNOW, RIGHT?! SO GOOD, RIGHT?! and now share them // try to share them // think about sharing them while sitting on the couch enjoying your bacon-wrapped date appetizer party.

White hand filling date with goat cheese using a butter knife.

It’s a Salty/Sweet Food Love Affair

Salty from the bacon, deliciously sweet from the dates, and creamy and tangy from the goat cheese.

The combo of all three: MIND-BLOWING.

Since learning to make these, they have been made approximately one bajillion and one times – for dinner club, for date night, for holiday parties, for sitting on the couch on a Friday night.

They’re so ridiculously easy while also being the most fancy-looking snack. Just what we like to see in the hustle and bustle of holidays and also LIFE.

Your salty-sweet, melty-cheese loving mouth is going to love them like whoa.

White hand wrapping bacon around a date.
White hand sticking toothpick into date wrapped with bacon and stuffed with goat cheese.
Bacon Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese on toothpicks.

Kitchen Hack Ahead

Okay, pause. This is my sideways baking trick.

Basically what this is is me dealing with my annoyance about the bottoms of these little guys getting crispy-bacon while the sides stay chewy-bacon. It’s not evenly cooked and it’s not okay.

So my solution: stick a toothpick in each one and then use the toothpick to turn the Bacon Wrapped Dates every so often so that they get cooked on every side.

Crispy-bacon all around makes for a better party anyway.

Bacon-wrapped dates on a plate with toothpicks in the dates.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese: FAQs

How do I get my bacon extra crispy?

First: check out the toothpick hack above. For crispier, browned bacon, set the oven temperature at 375. For crispier bacon, bake longer. Keep leftovers in the fridge.

My bacon didn’t cook. What did I do wrong?

Usually, my bacon pieces wrap around the dates 1.5 times. If it’s wrapping more than twice around the date, trim your bacon slices so they’re a little shorter. If that bacon layer is too thick, it won’t cook.

How did you make that glaze in the video?

Take these to the next level by putting a little honey bourbon glaze on top. Just mix about 1/4 cup of honey with 1 tablespoon of bourbon and brush the mixture on the dates when they come right out of the oven. 

Print
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Bacon-wrapped dates on a plate with toothpicks in the dates.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese


  • Author: Pinch of Yum
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 8 (2 dates per serving) 1x

Description

Bacon-Wrapped Dates with Goat Cheese – a simple 3-ingredient appetizer that will blow you away! Enjoy with a crowd of friends!


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 8 slices bacon (I find that thin bacon works better)
  • 16 dates
  • 4 ounces goat cheese
  • toothpicks

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice the dates lengthwise on one side to create an opening. Remove the pit.
  2. Using a spoon, stuff a small amount of goat cheese into the cavity of each date and press the sides together to close.
  3. Cut the bacon slices in half. Wrap each date with a slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick.
  4. Arrange evenly on a baking sheet with raised edges (otherwise grease will get everywhere) and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the dates and use the toothpick to turn each one so it’s laying on its side. Bake for another 5-8 minutes, until browned to your liking, and turn the dates to the other side and repeat. Remove from the oven, place on a paper towel lined plate, and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Equipment

Notes

Nutrition information is for two bacon-wrapped dates.

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Category: Appetizer
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: bacon-wrapped dates, goat cheese dates, bacon and goat cheese, date recipe

More Appetizers To Feed a Crowd


One More Thing!

This recipe is part of our collection of best healthy snacks. Check it out!

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350 Comments

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      I know it! Bacon = love. It’s that simple. I mean, have you seen the bacon bouquets you can make now? Who doesn’t want a bouquet out of bacon, flower, bah. But I’m going to use the fancy toothpicks, you know, the umbrella ones!

  1. Pinch of Yum Logo

    These are one of my favorite appetizers! My friend makes these for our dinner club and as you said they are ALWAYS a hit. Sweet, salty, and creamy what could be better?

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      I love these. Sometimes I top with a candied or toasted pecan before bacon wrap. They are so good!

  2. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I’m not even a huge fan of bacon but these look fantastic. I love Medjool dates and I have been cooking them in the oven at a low temp to make them tougher and less sticky and then slathering them in homemade almond butter. This is a nice mix up for a more savory option though. Thanks for sharing!

  3. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Dates stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in bacon blankies! How is it actually Monday? 😉
    The sideways baking trick is going to be a great trick to use!

      1. Pinch of Yum Logo

        I stuff mine with ALMONDS instead of cheese.
        Maple syrup or honey drizzled on top sounds great!

      1. Pinch of Yum Logo

        Here’s the FAQ on it!
        How did you make that glaze in the video?
        Take these to the next level by putting a little honey bourbon glaze on top. Just mix about 1/4 cup of honey with 1 tablespoon of bourbon and brush the mixture on the dates when they come right out of the oven.

  4. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This recipe is what my DREAMS are made of! Sweet, salty, bacon… emphasis on the bacon. I love how friend potlucks/dinner parties introduce you to new recipes that instantly become your favorite!

  5. Pinch of Yum Logo

    This is one of our favorite apps…EVERYONE loves them, even if at first they’re skeptical of the whole combo…and a lot of people don’t think they even like dates…until they try them with cheese and bacon…then they’re sold. Sometimes we use blue cheese too…gives them a bit more edge…

  6. Pinch of Yum Logo

    I had these served at a wine and cheese and they are seriously the best thing ever. I was literally reminiscing yesterday about how fabulous they were. They are that good- I literally daydream about them.

        1. Pinch of Yum Logo

          I tried them with the Precooked bacon and it is a bit stiff and didn’t wrap good enough. Also, not enough fat in the Precooked to really sizzle the date and cheese. By the way, I tried Goat Cheese and didn’t care for it but tried them again with Cream Cheese and loved it much more.

  7. Pinch of Yum Logo

    There is a place in Chicago that we used to go just for their bacon wrapped dates..they were out of this world. The idea of goat cheese just takes them to the next level. Genius!

  8. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Hey, you just solved my “What’s for dinner tonight” dilemma, party or no. Well, it sounds like it just became a party. Thank you!

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      I live in Miami I had these exact goat cheese dates at high end bar restaurant on Los Olas boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. They were a bit expensive you only got 4 but the flavor was stupendous. I googled bacon wrapped dates and I found your recipe and I look forward to your other recipes. Thanks Ray

  9. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Oh yum! I have made stuffed dates with ricotta that were tasty, but OMG why did I never think of goat cheese? I just bet that ups the flavor to a whole new level!

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Can I bring the beacon wrapped stuffed dates with goat cheese as an appetizer already prepared (cooked) so I don’t have to use the host’s oven? They might need the oven to finish something they are preparing. .

    1. Pinch of Yum Logo

      Would the restaurant happen to be called Magnolias? We had them there in San Francisco and loved them!

  10. Pinch of Yum Logo

    Wrap anything around bacon and it becomes a winner…pineapple, potato tots, cheese, etc. Dates are my all time favorite…thanks for the reminder….