When I first started this journey to pure clean health, sugar was one thing I knew I wanted out of our home. Everything I read on sugar, the effect it has on us, the addiction it causes, was not good news. I never felt good eating it, ever, and it always made me want to eat more. So sugar was on my hit list. I started by doing a lot of research on all the different unrefined alternatives. There are so many schools of thought out there when it comes to what constitutes “unrefined sugar.” After all I read, I decided that I fell into the category of “as long as it doesn’t go through a long chemically filled process of changing it from it’s original source and stripping it of natural nutrients,” I was okay with it.
We don’t have any blood sugar issues, so some sweetener was okay. I just wanted my sweetener to be as pure as I could find it. I threw away ALL refined sugar I had in my cupboards, and began filling my baking sections with things like coconut palm sugar, sucanat, raw honey, maple syrup, and dates. It took me a little time to get the courage to make date paste. But the day I did it changed my life. IT. IS. AMAZING.
Date paste is super easy to make, stores well, and can even be frozen! I keep it in a mason jar in my fridge to use for our everyday needs. We put it in oatmeal, use it in baking, and any little sweet snacks we randomly come up with. I often make a big batch of date paste and freeze it in small containers to pull out when I want to make something that I want it in. Depending on what I’m making, I sometimes need to blend it a little bit with a dash of almond milk or water just to get it nice and creamy again, but it works like a charm! You need to try this little gem of a sweetener. It is all natural, does not make you feel awful after you indulge, and you can feed it to your kids knowing they are eating something more wholesome and healthy than refined sugar. Date paste will be your new “go-to!”
Ingredients: For date paste on its own: For date paste to use in my recipes: note: I usually use Medjool dates as they are soft and sweet and I can find them easily. Another good soft and sweet variety are the Barhi dates. If you use something other than Medjool in this recipe you may make a different amount of date paste depending on date size. It may also turn out less sweet depending on the kind you use. Check out this great resource on the different types of dates. I use water in the paste I make for recipes, but milk in the kind I use raw. I like the creaminess the milk adds when I eat it raw but prefer the water for my recipes as it is more neutral. Instructions: Put all ingredients in a food processor, blender or high speed blender and puree until smooth. If using a high speed blender this will only take a few minutes. Traditional food processors or blenders will take longer, but eventually the date paste will come out nice and smooth. You can also make it chunkier by blending less. If you want a thinner paste, then you can always add more milk. Date Paste
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