Dates are an inherently sweet fruit and can be served alone, without adornment, as dessert—something they’ve been doing at Chez Panisse for decades. But if you’re going to use the date as a dessert ingredient, you’d better make damn sure you aren’t doing anything to push that sweetness into a treacly, over-sweet territory. This recipe is a series of balancing acts—little bits of sweet and bitter added at key stages, plus a bit of crunch at the end from the sesame seeds.

In working through this recipe, I hit on three customizations to heartily recommend as follows:

• A standard version: Use grocery store Medjool dates, a Tony’s Chocoloney 70% dark bar, and good old-fashioned Vermont maple syrup. You can even skip the sesame seeds here if you want to play it safe, or go all in and completely cover each date with chocolate to amp up the one-bite indulgence of the snack.
• A fancy version: Use Rancho Meladuco dates, Dick Taylor Chocolate’s Northerner Blend chocolate bar (for its high acidity and lovely piquant bitterness), and Runamok’s Tahitian Lime maple syrup.
• A color-switched version: This is a total rethink of the recipe but built using the same components, like a fancy cocktail bar riff. Use pistachios instead of walnuts; swap out rose syrup for maple; zest a grapefruit instead of an orange, or chop up some candied apricot; dunk the date in white chocolate (I recommend Askinosie), then sprinkle with black sesame seeds.