Learn how to make date paste with just 2 ingredients in a high-speed blender. You’ll end up with creamy and sweet caramel deliciousness. Use it as a healthier sweetener in desserts, porridge, oatmeal, bakes, pancakes, waffles etc.
What I love about this recipe:
- Natural sweetener with caramel taste!
- Healthier alternative to processed sweeteners.
- Sweeten desserts, brownies, and muffins!
How to Make Date Paste at Home
It’s very easy to make date paste at home with fresh dates and water. Besides that you’ll need a high-speed blender and a bit of your time.
Date paste is vegan, gluten-free, low-fat, grain-free, soy-free, nut-free, and peanut-free.
Most Popular Date Varieties
You can use many different date varieties:
Medjool Dates
Medjool dates are larger, darker, and more caramel-like in taste than other common types like Deglet Noor. You can often buy them dried but not dehydrated, making them soft and sticky. Their sugars become more concentrated as they dry, which further increases their sweetness.
Compared with other common varieties like Deglet Noor, Medjool dates contain significantly more calcium.
Deglet Noor
The second most popular date variety in grocery stores are Deglet Noor dates. They are subtler in sweetness and a little nutty in flavour, making them a great snacking date.
Deglet Noor is a medium sized date with a narrow elongated oval shape. They range in colour from straw yellow to amber toned with a slightly translucent exterior.
Furthermore, their texture is considered semi-dry and often described as having a slight snappy crunch. What’s more, compared to the Medjool, they have less sugar but offer a complex sweetness with a nutty finish likened to browned butter and cashew.
Deglet Noor dates are the variety that I usually use to make date paste.
Buy Deglet Noor dates on Amazon.
Barhi Dates
Barhi dates are small fruits, averaging 2 to 4 centimetres in length and 2 to 3 centimetres in diameter. When young and semi-ripe, Barhi dates are golden yellow and have a smooth, taut, and firm surface with a crunchy, fibrous consistency. As the fruits fully ripen, the yellow hue will transition into an amber, dark brown tone, while the surface creases and wrinkles. The flesh will also soften, developing a smooth, creamy, moist, and slightly chewy texture.
Barhi dates have a light astringency mixed with fruity-sweet notes of cinnamon, coconut, and sugarcane when semi-ripe. As the fruit matures, the flavour will deepen into sweet, buttery, and fruity nuances with butterscotch, honey, and persimmon overtones.
Mazafati Dates
Mazafati dates have a thick flesh and a chocolaty caramel-like taste with the traits of brown sugar. Also, they are sold either in fresh, semi-dry, or dried form.
Furthermore, Mazafati dates are high in iron and natural sugars. This fruit is contains various nutrients such as calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, potassium, vitamin A, B vitamins, vitamin C etc. In addition, dates are low in fat and high in fibre and protein.
Buy Mazafati dates on BasketBulk.
Ajwa Dates
What’s interesting about Ajwa dates is that it is one of the varieties with low glycemic load, given for a portion of three dates.
Ajwa date is a celebrated assortment of dates, grown exclusively in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Ranging from a dark brown to almost black colour, these dates are delightfully soft and fruity with a prune-like taste and tend to be of a dry variety.
Furthermore, Ajwa dates have medicinal properties as well. Phytochemical studies have showed that Ajwa flesh and pits are enriched with certain phenolic and flavonoids, which have multiple effects on human health due to their strong antioxidant properties. Preclinical studies revealed that Ajwa dates have strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, and anti-cancer activities. [Source]
Buy Ajwa dates on Amazon.
The Process
As I mentioned before, it is extremely easy to make date paste at home. You only need two ingredients – dates and water.
First, in case the dates you have come with pits, remove them. If your dates are pitted, there’s no need to worry about that.
Next, throw your pitted dates into a high-speed blender with filtered water and let soak for at least 30 minutes. To shorten the soaking time, cut the dates into smaller pieces. The soak time also depends on the variety of your dates – whether they are juicier or drier.
When the dates are well soaked, turn on the blender and process until you have a smooth and creamy paste without any visible date pieces.
You may regulate the consistency of your date paste by adding more or less water. To me, the ratio of 400 grams of dates and 475 grams of water is perfect.
Finally, feel free to add some cinnamon and/or ginger powder for flavour.
How to Store Date Paste
Store the ready paste in a glass jar in the fridge for up to 5 days. For longer keeping boil the water you’re using in the recipe and let cool a bit before adding to the dates. Also, sterilise the jar you’re going to store the paste in.
How to Use Date Paste
There several delicious ways you can use homemade date paste:
- Use it as a healthier sweetener in porridges or oatmeal.
- It is also great in pancake and waffle batters.
- Add it to dessert bowls like raw buckwheat ricotta or buckwheat ricotta cream cheese.
- Sweeten brownies, muffins, cookies, or cakes.
- Spread it on bread, pancakes, waffles, or cookies.
- Finally, use it as you’d normally consume any kind of jam.
The recipes that include date paste on my blog:
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How to Make Date Paste
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: about a litre
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make date paste with just 2 ingredients in a high-speed blender. You’ll end up with creamy and sweet caramel deliciousness.
Soak time: 30 minutes
Instructions
- First, in case the dates you have come with pits, remove them. If your dates are pitted, there’s no need to worry about that.
- Next, throw your pitted dates into a high-speed blender with filtered water and let soak for at least 30 minutes. To shorten the soaking time, cut the dates into smaller pieces. The soak time also depends on the variety of your dates – whether they are juicier or drier.
-
When the dates are well soaked, turn on the blender and process until you have a smooth and creamy paste without any visible date pieces.
Notes
Regulate the consistency by adding more or less water.
Use any preferred date varieties (see more above). I utilised Deglet Noor pitted dates.
Feel free to add a bit of cinnamon and/or ginger to your date paste for flavour.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Method: Blender
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tbsp. (20 grams)
- Calories: 24 kcal
- Sugar: 5.8g
- Sodium: 0.62mg
- Fat: 0.04g
- Carbohydrates: 6.2g
- Fiber: 0.7g
- Protein: 0.23g
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Feel free to PIN the below image!
If a package doesn’t specify what variety they are – simply says “Dates” on it – what might they be? Honestly, I didn’t realize there were multiple kinds: I’d only heard of plain (unspecified variety) dates, Medjool, and Deglet Noor, but not the other 3, before
Use any dates that you have.