Hi, great recipe, but how do you get this beautiful dark color? mine came out pale brownish, although I used dark dates. Plus - does the final pro...

It would be very sticky because of the dates, apricots and nut butter. You could roll them in more crushed nuts to hide the stickiness. If you used the golden/orange apricots, that would cause the color to be lighter than if you used the dark apricots. However, the picture of them doesn't look super dark to me.