How to Make Date Paste

A step by step guide for how to make date paste to naturally sweeten baked goods, oatmeal, yogurt and more. All you need is dates!

this Recipe

Have you ever made date paste before? Forget the expensive jars of date paste at the store when it’s so easy to make your own. All you need is dates, hot water and vanilla and/or cinnamon depending on flavor preference.

We eat a lot of dates in my house, mostly in my Snicker’s Bites and my Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie aka the Snicker’s Shake. If you haven’t had a date before, you are in for a real treat– they taste like candy! Naturally sweet and packed with fiber, they are a great alternative to refined sugar in some recipes.

Health Benefits of Dates

The misinformation that I see on the internet about sugar is shocking– while I do try and limit sugar consumption for overall health, you don’t have to fear sugar the way many social media influencers scare you into believing.

That said, one of the benefits of dates is using them as a natural sweetener in places where you would normally use other sweeteners, like coconut sugar, brown sugar or cane sugar. It doesn’t work in the same 1:1 swap in every recipe, but will in many as I’ll describe below.

Dates are rich in fiber (especially insoluble fiber), antioxidants (mainly carotenoids and phenolics) along with iron, B vitamins, folate and Vitamin C.

For my pregnant friends, you may have heard that dates help to stimulate labor. Randomized trials have found that eating dates late in pregnancy, about 5-6 dates a day, may increase cervical ripening and reduce the need for a medical labor induction or augmentation. One small study even found a positive effect on postpartum blood loss. It’s important to note though that these studies were small and were not blind (a gold standard for research studies), which may affect the results.

If you love dates, enjoy them! But I don’t think there is enough evidence to recommend my late-pregnant clients just to consume dates to induce labor.

Ingredients for Date Paste

• Dates
• Warm water
• Vanilla extract and/or cinnamon, if desired

That’s it! I prefer Medjool dates in this recipe as they naturally have a very sweet, caramel taste but other date varieties will work.

Vanilla Cinnamon Date Paste

While I love stirring date paste into oatmeal, it’s especially fantastic as a fruit dip for apples! To make this, add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and a few dashes of cinnamon to your date paste before blending.

Enjoy this flavored date paste with apples or pears for a delicious snack.

How to Store Date Paste

Once you’ve made your date paste, place in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks. Alternatively, you can freeze your date paste. I have the most success placing small amounts in a silicone ice cube tray, freezing, then popping out the cubes and storing in freezer-safe bags (these stasher bags are my favorite. A little pricy at the outside, but you can use them over and over again).

Ways to Use Date Paste

Once you’ve made your paste, you can use it to sweeten your favorite recipes. Because date paste can’t be used in all cakes and cookie recipes in a 1:1 ratio, you’ll have to experiment to find what works for you. I have more success using them in recipes that are fairly dense already, like my Vegan Smash Cake Recipe or these peanut butter date cookies that I shared over on PBJ’s.

If you are using date paste in place of honey or maple syrup, you may need to add more paste than the liquid sweeteners to account for density. So, if a recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of maple syrup then I typically start with 1/4 cup of date paste to substitute.

Date paste is a favorite for me to add a little sweetness in yogurt and oatmeal, especially my Instant Pot Oatmeal with a little creamy paste stirred in at the end.

• Chocolate Vegan Pudding
• Berry Vegan Freezer Fudge
• Sweet Cherry Lime Popsicles
• No Bake Vegan Chocolate Pie
• Chocolate Banana Popsicles
• Pumpkin Cranberry Energy Bites
• Peanut Butter Date Cookies

If you try this recipe, make sure to come back and leave a comment and a rating. Your feedback helps other readers and seeing you make my recipes makes my day!