How to Make Date Paste (2024)

Home » Recipes » Basics » How to Make Date Paste

posted: 09/17/19 — updated: 10/04/23 by Deryn Macey Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.

Jump to Recipe·5 from 2 reviews

Learn how to make date paste to use a natural sweetener, a dip or spread or in baking recipes.

Date paste is sweet, creamy, delicious and easy to make! You can use date paste as a spread or dip, in baking or as a natural sweetener wherever needed.

Table of Contents

Recipe Features

Dietary Features: Vegan, oil-free, no added sugar.
Just one simple ingredient: dates!
Delicious for smoothies, pancakes, oatmeal, toast and for sweetening baking and other recipes.
Stir into coffee for an alternative to sugar.
Stores well in the fridge or can be frozen.

How to Make this Recipe

Start with 1 cup packed of pitted dates. This should be about 250 grams. Really push them in there so you have a full, packed cup.

Step 1. Soak the Dates

Soak the dates in “just boiled” water for 1-2 hours.

After they’ve soaked, scoop out at least 1/4 cup of the soaking water and then drain the dates. There’s no need to dry them completely. Just give them a quick shake. If they’re a bit wet, that’s totally fine.

Why soak the dates? Soaking makes them extra soft and gooey and makes blending a breeze! If you have very soft dates to begin with, such as fresh medjool dates, you can probably get away with skipping the soaking and just blending them with a bit of warm water. I always soak them though.

Step 2. Blend the Dates

Add the dates and reserved 1/4 cup soaking water to a blender or food processor and mix until smooth. I like to add a little pinch of sea salt too but it’s optional.

You can make date paste in a food processor or blender or by using an immersion blender. A powerful single-serve blender cups works best for small batches and a food processor or high-speed blender works best for large batches.

I make date paste using 1 cup of dates in my Vitamix and it works just fine but it does take some stopping and scraping down the sides repeatedly since their isn’t enough content to really catch the blades.

Once blended, it can enjoyed it right away but it gets even better after sitting.

Date paste becomes darker, thicker and sweeter after chilling in the fridge for a couple hours.

Best Dates to Use

Date paste can be made with any kind of dates. Medjool dates are the sweetest and softest but since the dates are soaked before blending, any date works well.

I really like sayer dates for this recipe. They’re soft, gooey and extra sweet. Deglect noor, bahri and honey dates all work as well.

How to Use Date Paste

There are many delicious ways you can use date paste. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

spread on vegan pancakes, waffles or toast
sweeten hot chocolate or mocha
sweeten homemade golden milk
sweeten homemade almond milk, oat milk or hemp seed milk
sweeten a matcha latte
spread it on muffins, cookies or homemade bars
as a dip for sliced apple of strawberries
blended into smoothies
added to stovetop oatmeal or overnight oats
used in baking as an alternative to maple syrup, honey or agave
replace applesauce in recipes
add a little coconut milk to thin, a pinch of salt and some vanilla to make date caramel
spread on baked sweet potato or used in these acorn squash or sweet potato breakfast bowls
sweeten this pumpkin mousse

Storing

Store date paste in the fridge in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.
Date paste can also be frozen up to 3 months and thawed in the fridge.

Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Scroll down to the comment section to leave a star rating and review.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️