Date molasses recipe or Date syrup
Date molasses or date syrup is a natural sweetener. It is very nutritious and I advise it if you are planning to cut out sugar. It is perfect for breakfast and snack with toast bread and provides daily energy.
What is date syrup or date molasses?
Date molasses or date syrup is made from cooked date extract. That is, after soaking the dates, they press them completely and extract their juice.
Then the extract is heated until it thickens. The obtained syrup is very sweet, smooth, and pleasant. The sweetness is just right, not too much and not too little.
Is date syrup the same as date molasses?
Actually, if we look very specifically, molasses is obtained from sugarcane and its concentration is different from date syrup.
But in common, date molasses and date syrup are considered the same, their uses are the same and their appearance is the same.
how to make date molasses / date syrup
Date molasses or date syrup is a natural sweetener. A great substitute for sugar.
Materials
- 3.5 kilograms dates
- water as needed
Instructions
- pitting: take the dates out of the pack and put them into a container. Rinse them if necessary. Then pit them.
- Soaking and squeezing: Move the dates into a suitable container, pour boiling water over them and leave them for about 1 to 2 hours to get wet and softened. Pour enough water to cover them completely, but no more is needed.After soaking for about 2 hours in boiling (or extremely hot) water, grab and squeeze them a bit to get softened better. Now the dates would look as shown in the picture below (right image):
- Straining: Place a fine strainer on a pot. Pour the dates with the water into the strainer so that the date juice flows into the pot.Grab and squeeze the juice out of the dates as much as you can. This way, you separate the skin and the pulp of the dates while making the date juice leech out into the pot.
- Pouring into a cheesecloth, pouring water over them, and squeezing: Slowly pour the date pulp into a cheesecloth or nut milk bag and wrap it up tightly. The strainer should still be on the pot. Squeeze the cloth firmly and grab it so that the excess juice flows into the pot. Don’t pour all the date paste in the cloth at once, but as much as the cloth gets not too full and makes it easy for you to squeeze it.Don’tworry if you’re without a cheesecloth. You can use a thin cloth bag or a very fine sieve instead.Grabbing from the top of the cloth, squeeze firmly so that the date juice is well taken and flows into the pot while the paste remains inside the cloth.Each time you put some dates in the cheesecloth, open it from time to time and pour some water on the dates, and squeeze. At this stage, I poured about half a liter of water on the dates.
- Heating: Put the date juice on medium heat until the water evaporates and the mixture gets thickened. Don’t put the lid on the pot so that the water evaporates sooner. Finally, about 1/4 of the date juice remains and the dark brown syrup is ready. Of course, this also depends on the amount of water you’ve added.The important thing is to be careful it does not get overheated and taste burnt. It takes about 1 to 2 hours for the date syrup to reach the right thickness. How thick or thin it is, depends on your taste.Late in the process, try to stay next to the pot and stir the syrup continually until it reaches the desired thickness. Note that after getting cooled, it also thickens a bit more. If it’s pasty or foamy after it cools, you can pass it through a very fine sieve to get it runny and smooth.Once cooled, move it into a container with a tight-fitting lid and store.
Notes
Additional notes:
- Soft dates are suitable for date molasses; Try not to use dry and stale dates that are hard to squeeze.
- Try using good quality dates, but if you use lower-priced dates, check inside of them for possible insects or worms.
- If the skin of your dates is too firm, after you pit them and poured boiling water over them, put the pot on medium heat for about 10 minutes so that their skin gets softened nicely and the juice is leeched out.
- Gather the cloth tightly so that it does not unwrap while squeezed.
- At first when you put the pot containing date juice on the stove, you can use a bit higher heat. The juice may get foamy on its surface. I suggest you collect this foam and throw it away.
- Lower the heat when it’s almost boiling. Medium heat would be suitable; not too high to burn the molasses and not too low. The molasses should boil until it reduces to almost half the initial volume. That's when the syrup is ready. During the process, the date syrup should be stirred constantly so that it does not settle.
- In my case, 3.5 kgs of dates resulted in about 2 kgs of syrup. The final molasses, of course, depends on whether you want it thicker or thinner. The longer the syrup stays on the heat to get thickened, the less its final weight would be. But the thicker it be, the better it would taste.
- Don't throw the leftover date paste away so that you can cook date cake with it if you want. I recommend you see the date molasses cake recipe. This wonderful cake is made without sugar with date molasses.
how to use date molasses?
Date syrup can be used as a sweetener in lots of food and pastry. This healthy and nutritious substance can be used in almost any food but is great foodstuff in the following ways:
- As a sugar alternative in cooking and confectionery
- To cook sugar-free cakes for diabetics
- To be served with toast and ardeh
- As an invigorating mixture with milk, walnuts, and flaked barley
- In milkshake and as some smoothie combine with walnuts, cinnamon, and oats
- Within sorts of cookies, tarts, and pancakes
- As breakfast or snack
You can go to the dessert finder tool, select date molasses in the ingredients section. And see the recipes you can make with it.
How to store it
The suitable conditions for storing date syrup is a closed container in a cool dry place, which makes it possible to store it up to an entire year. But in hot weather, it may become sour.
The thicker it be, the less likely it is to get moldy. In general, try to make this tonic in small quantities to consume it fresh.
The most important tricks in the recipe of date syrup
- Do not use too dry dates or thick-skinned dates.
- The more water you pour on the dates and the more juice you get from them, the longer it takes to cook.
- Do not let it overcook; Overcooking causes the date syrup to become bitter and black.
- Don’t make it as watery. It wouldn’t taste good if it’s too thin.
In another post, I wrote about making pomegranate molasses without sugar, see it.
