As well as eating a ton of dates these days, I’m using them in cooking now, as a way to get the sweet portion of my sweet tooth satisfied. I make a sort of ice-cream with whipped quark and crème fraîche, but needed something sweet to go with it, instead of simply adding sweeteners. My grandmother used to make this, and although I’ve made mine in the way she did (but much simpler with a Nutribullet) I suspect there are other ways to get it done. At first, it wasn’t as straight forward as I thought, but I’ve got it sorted now. I’m even putting it on my mothers toast instead of butter and jam for her evening snack. Much better than the added sugar and fat late in the evening for her.
This is fabulous spread on toast, ice-cream, waffles, or anything you want to put in place of butter and margarine spreads. It’s sweet and sticky and delish, and good for us, as it’s simply a one ingredient butter / spread / caramel, that just has a little water added to it.
You’d need sticky Medjool dates to get this to work properly, as I suspect drier dates wouldn’t pulverise so easily, or might need much more in the way of soaking.
- 12 Medjool Dates
- Water
- Destone the Medjool dates and chop them up into reasonably small segments.
- Add them to your blending jug, with a little water, and leave them to soak for up to half an hour.
- Pour the water into a separate cup and add back two or three teaspoons of water to the dates.
- Blend. When the blender stops turning, add a spoon more of water, and mix with your dates, until it is slightly thinner again. Reblend.
- Repeat the last step until you have the consistency you want. Runnier or thicker, it's all up to you.
Leave a Reply