Name: Boozy Bacon Wrapped Dates
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 lb medjool dates (the big ones!); ½ cup brandy; 1 lb regular cut bacon

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Boozy Bacon Wrapped Dates will FLY off the platter at your next get-together. They are a 3-ingredient recipe that no one can resist!

If there is one appetizer that I know people will love, it’s bacon wrapped dates. They’re the first to disappear at any party, along with other crowd pleasers like shrimp cocktail and pigs in a blanket.

This year, I was serving them for a holiday appetizer party, so I wanted to change them up a bit. My solution? ADD BRANDY.

And oh my goodness! The addition of brandy was a very good idea. It complements the sweetness of the dates and the salty bacon so nicely, and you can get a hint of brandy with every bite.

What type of dates to use for bacon wrapped dates

I prefer using medjool dates as they are larger and juicier than the smaller varieties. Juicy is a weird word to call a date, but trust me on this one. They create the perfect date-to-bacon ratio.

You will usually have to remove the pit from medjool dates, unless you find them already pitted. I just slice a small slit in each date to remove them (don’t cut all the way through the date).

How to make boozy bacon wrapped dates

I started by soaking one pound of medjool dates in brandy overnight. The type of brandy doesn’t matter. I spent about $10 on a bottle, so nothing special. But if you enjoy a more expensive brandy, by all means use that.

After soaking the dates overnight, I had about 3 tablespoons of brandy leftover in the bowl. You can discard this, drink this, or use it for another recipe.

Then I wrap each date in a half of a slice of bacon and secure it with a toothpick. I use the regular-cut bacon here. Thick-cut takes forever to cook and messes with the date-to-bacon ratio. Regular cut is the way to go.

Next, I place the boozy bacon wrapped dates on a sheet pan fitted with a wire rack (I got mine on Amazon). The wire rack ensures that the bacon crisps evenly.

I put a piece of aluminum foil underneath the wire rack to catch the bacon drippings to make clean-up easier.

The final step is to bake the dates until the bacon is crisp. Mine took 30 minutes exactly, but start checking them around 25 minutes.

Holiday Appetizer Buffet

I made the boozy bacon wrapped dates for a holiday appetizer buffet, which was styled by my friend Kelley of Haviland Events. The trees and table runner are from Target and the pompom garland is from Michaels. The vintage dishes are her own.