how to make date molasses / date syrup
Date molasses or date syrup is a natural sweetener. A great substitute for sugar.
Prep Time20 minutes mins
Active Time1 hour hr
Soaking the dates1 hour hr
Total Time2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
Author: Aloorecipes
- 3.5 kilograms dates
- water as needed
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.