Date Paste
Date Paste = Yum! Ok, to be perfectly honest, I haven't always loved dates. I think I have an association from my youth with dates being gross old people food with a weird texture. However, I have come to love food that is sweetened with dates and date paste makes it easy to do. Dates are a great sweetener to choose. Unlike refined sugar, they actually have some nutritional benefits. Dates are a good source of fiber, a healthy source of quick energy, a good source of potassium, magnesium, as well as vitamin B-6 and iron.
Date Paste
Dates, pitted
Water
Soak pitted dates of any variety for 30 minutes to 1 hour. If they are very dry, they may need to soak longer.
Drain off liquid, but reserve it to cook hot cereal in. It is sweet and you might as well not pour all that yumminess down the drain.
Place the soaked dates in a blender and blend until smooth.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Use to sweeten hot cereal, granola, smoothies, baked goods and anything else you can think of.
TIPS
Date Paste will store in the fridge for several weeks.
http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/dates.html