Honeyed Dates (Apicius 7.11.1 p. 251)

See Apicius on Dulcia Domestica (homemade sweets)

Honeyed Dates
from Christopher Grocock & Sally Grainger, Apicius: A Critical Edition with an Introduction and English Translation, Prospect Books, 2006

dates – fresh or dried
pine nuts chopped
pepper
honey

Pit the dates, stuff them with pine nuts and pepper, roll in salt and fry in honey [for 5-10 minutes or until they are caramelized].

[Put them on an oiled plate to prevent them stick to each other or to the plate. Serve hot.]

Original Recipe: Dulcia domestica (from Apicius' De Re Coquinaria)
Dulcia domestica: palmulas vel dactilos excepto semine, nuce vel nucleis vel piper tritum infercies. sales foris contingis, frigis in melle cocto, et inferes.

Translation:
Homemade sweets. Take palms or dates, with the stones removed, and stuff them with nuts or nut kernels and ground pepper. Salt the dates on top and bottom and fry in cooked honey, and serve. (Apicius, Book Seven, XI-I)

Dulciaria (Pepper and Pine-Nut Stuffed Honey Dates)
From Pass the Garum blog (http://pass-the-garum.blogspot.com/)

Whilst Apicius is largely silent on tasty little treats, it is not without. One recipe which we do have is the recipe for dulciaria, coming from the Latin dulcis, meaning sweet. These sweets are made as follows:

To make little home-made sweets, remove the seeds from dates and stuff them with nuts and ground pepper. Sprinkle salt on the outside, candy them in honey, and serve. - Apicius, 7.13.1

Dried Dates and Figs
Pine Nuts
Black Peppercorns
Set Honey
Salt

Remove the stones from the dates, and cut a pocket in the figs.

Crush some peppercorns in a mortar and pestle and mix with the pine nuts.

Stuff the dates and figs with this peppery pine nut mixture.

Sprinkle the tiniest bit of salt over the stuffed fruit, rubbing it in a little bit to ensure that it sticks.

Cover a plate/baking tray with some non-stick greaseproof paper.

Put a few spoonfuls of honey into a saucepan (I used 2 tbsp) and bring to a simmer. The honey will start foaming up after a little while. When it does this, take the pan off the heat.

Stick a cocktail stick/skewer through the first bit of fruit and dip it into the practically molten honey. It helps to tilt the pan so that it all gathers on one side. Roll the fruit around a bit to make sure it is covered, before setting it onto the greaseproof paper. Use a fork to prize the fruit off the cocktail stick/skewer, and repeat.

When all are done, pour any leftover honey over all of the dulciaria and leave to 'set'.

Results

These were quick and easy to make, and a pleasure to eat. It goes without saying that they are sweet, but the salt on the outside gives them a depth of flavour which means that they taste of more than just honey. Biting into them, you get the crunch of the pine nuts, followed a second later by the spicy-sweetness of black pepper. The warmth of the pepper lingers, leaving you with fond memories of what went before. These sweets remind me of the taste of Christmas (rather anachronistic I know).

Ancient Roman Stuffed Dates
from https://historicalitaliancooking.home.blog/

Today we prepare a dish from the ancient Roman cookbook attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, the most famous cook of the Antiquity. This is one of the few sweets of Apicius, dates stuffed with walnuts and pine nuts, then coated with warm honey. The filling, without sweeteners and peppered just a little, and the sprinkle of a pinch of salt on the dates balance the sweetness of the coating and create a slight and tasty contrast of flavors.

The author includes this recipe among the dulcia domestica, the sweets made at home. However, sweets were always present on wealthy Roman tables as the secundae mensae, that means the second part of a banquet – whereas the primae mensae were the main courses, preceded by the promulsis: the appetizers that accompanied the mulsum, a wine prepared with honey and grapes. Dates, nuts, and honey were staple ingredients not only for preparing the sweets, but also for cooking sauces, meat, and fish.

dates
walnuts
pine nuts
honey
black pepper
coarse sea salt

Grind in the mortar the black pepper, the walnuts, and the pine nuts. We suggest using half walnuts and half pine nuts, with a little amount of pepper, but Apicius doesn’t give us the ratio. [In the video, he ground the nuts and pepper until it almost formed a paste so that it could be packed in the dates without falling out. Now, remove the stones from the dates and stuff them carefully with the paste, then grind and sprinkle on the dates a pinch of sea salt.

Heat up the honey in a pan reducing it by 20% of volume, then cook for about 20 seconds the dates until they are coated with the sauce. When they cool down, plate and serve.

Original recipe
Dulcia domestica: palmulas vel dactylos* excepto semine, nuce vel nucleis vel pipere trito infercies. Sale foris contingis, frigis in melle cocto, et inferes.

Translation
Home-made sweets: dates without the stone. Stuff them with walnuts, pine nuts, and ground pepper; sprinkle with salt, cook into reduced honey and serve.