No, I’m not joking at all. I see all kinds of recipes for simple to make deserts and some of those are in fact simple, but not like this one which involves a bit of cutting, a bit of crushing, a bit of assembly and nothing else. No cooking, baking, glazing, not even heating/ melting up things. It may sound strange or perhaps dubious but this is one of those delicious dishes which takes longer to explain than to prepare. I might add this was inspired by NYT Cooking.

Nothing exotic in the ingredients with the possible exception of the crème fraîche which is essentially a fatter sour cream, 40%, and less sour and “fresher” tasting which works well with deserts, fruits or even omelettes or scrambled eggs. I find the brand in the picture at Coppas all the time so it is not rare or hard to come by. Anyway the base of the desert are pitted medjool dates to which we are adding, pecans, pistachios and slivered almonds plus lime or lemon zest, cardamom and mint for garnish and aroma.

Each date is opened and filled with a pecan, then closed back up. A portion would be made out of 4-5 of those dates, set next to each other on a “bed” of crushed pistachios and topped with creme fraiche, around one and a half teaspoons per date. Garnish with slivered almonds, cardamom and citrus zest plus a bit of mint. You’re done! This is one well balanced tasting desert, equally sweet, fresh, creamy and crunchy. I told you it was simple, didn’t I? Well, I guess one could top fresh or canned fruits with a dollop of whipped cream and some aromas, nothing would be simpler than that, right? Well… isn’t this what I did here?