Date Paste – One of My Favorite Sweeteners!

If you’ve been following along, you know that I have an insatiable sweet tooth! I’ve tried, on far more than one occasion, to ignore it and eat absolutely nothing sweet. As you can probably guess from the “I’ve tried” statement, my attempts have failed, usually ending in my consuming a ridiculous amount of calories try to avoid sugar – far more than I would have if I would have just eaten what I craved to begin with. Oh, and in the end, I usually end up eating whatever sweet treat I crave anyway – double the whammy!!

And then several years ago I began hiking and discovered fig bars sweetened with date paste. They were amazing and packed with amazing sweetness! I could hardly believe they didn’t have any processed sugar in them. This got my curiosity going and I searched high and low to find some date paste I could cook with. I figured that if date paste could help satisfy my sweet tooth, I’d start making some of my other favorite sweets, like brownies and muffins, with it. But to my surprise, I couldn’t find any date paste…anywhere!

Around this same time, I had been making overnight oats and decided to put in a few date pieces, which I usually keep on hand for snacking, in my overnight oats. After stirring it up the next morning, I realized the date pieces had dissolved and created a delightfully sweet morning treat. It was at this moment that I realized I could probably make my own date paste.

Through experimentation, I discovered this was not just an idea, but a real option and with two simple ingredients: dates and water. Since this time, I’ve altered several of my recipes to accommodate using date paste in place of sugar for a healthier delight when I’m craving sweets. Chocolate is probably my biggest weakness and I’m a sucker for brownies! Luckily, date paste has saved me from myself countless times – without having to sacrifice my love for brownies! WIN!!!

If you’re interested in making date paste yourself, here’s how I make mine…

How to Make Date Paste

1 cup date pieces (fresh or dried)
3/4 cup boiling water (or enough to cover the dates)

Pour the boiling water over the date pieces. Wait 10 minutes and mash with a fork until a paste is formed. If you use fresh date pieces, it may take a few more minutes for the fruit to dissolve enough to form a paste.

When cooking with date paste, you’ll need to decrease the amount of liquid or increase the amount of flour by 1/4 cup for every 1 cup of date paste. For instance, if your recipe calls for 1 cup sugar and you use 1 cup date paste instead, increase the amount of flour you put in your recipe by 1/4 cup to offset the additional liquid in the date paste.

It’s also worth noting that date paste does not always result in the same denseness as sugar does. Generally, I find that baked goods cooked with date paste are a bit more dense than those baked with sugar. But if you’re like me and trying to lower the amount of processed sugar you put in your body, denseness is not really all that important!