Description
Having date paste in your fridge makes it so easy to get a little sweet taste without the sugar hangover. Bursting with vanilla caramel sweetness, you’ll be surprised at how much you don’t miss the sugar.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups dried Deglet Noor dates, preferably organic (about 300 grams)
- water to cover
Instructions
- Check your dates for any hard bits. Open each date to make sure the hard seed has been removed. Also remove any hard blossom ends (they’ll be at one end of your date).
- Place dates in a small pot, then cover with water.
- Bring the pot to a boil over medium heat.
- Turn off the heat and cover the dates for 10-15 minutes.
- The soaked dates should be noticeably softer with the outer skins loosely hanging off the dates.
- Drain the dates over a bowl. Press out the water with a spoon, but reserve the water in case you need to adjust the consistency.
- Place the dates in a food processor or high speed blender and process until smooth.
- Scrape down the sides of your work bowl or jar as necessary. In a blender, it should take about two 45 second cycles, scraping in between. In a food processor, it should take about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl periodically.
- Good date paste should be smooth with a consistency a little thinner than peanut butter. Add in a little soaking water if your paste seems thicker than that and process for a few more seconds to make a nice easily spreadable paste.
Notes
- What dates to use? My preference is for deglet noor dates as I seem to be able to find them easier than Medjool. Medjool tend to be softer than Deglet Noors, so you may not need as much water when you soak the dates. Still soak your Medjool dates as your paste will be too stiff without any water.
- Too chunky?: If your paste seems too chunky, scrape down your work bowl more frequently and add in a little of the soaking water.
- Help! I heard a nasty crunch!: Don’t panic. If you heard a hard crunch when you turned on your blender/food processor, you likely missed removing a seed. Take out your blade, then find the offender to remove it. If you’re lucky, it’s probably embedded itself right on the sharp blade. From here, you can keep processing your date paste.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Additional Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Baking building blocks
Nutrition
- Serving Size: about 1 tablespoon
- Calories: 52
- Sugar: 11
- Sodium: .38
- Fat: .07
- Saturated Fat: .01
- Carbohydrates: 14
- Fiber: 1
- Protein: .46