Alia’s Tips: How to Make Date Paste

Ingredients :

• 500 grams of dates (pitted)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (or spice of your choice, like ground cinnamon)
• Pinch ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water

Directions :

1- First, remove the pits from the dates.
boil some water in a pot and place a sieve on top. We are going to steam the dates to make them soft. The dates I am using are already super soft so it will only take 10 minutes to steam them – so depending on the dates you are using, it may take between 10-20 minutes of steaming.
2- Place the dates in a food processor; here I have 500 grams of steamed dates. Add 1 tablespoon of butter,  ½ teaspoon of ground cardamom, a pinch of ground cloves, and 1 teaspoon of orange blossom water. I personally love this spice combo, but feel free to replace it with the spices of your choice for example ground cinnamon.
3- Mix the ingredients until you get a smooth paste.
4- And that’s it! The paste is very smooth because it is still warm, but it will get thicker as it cools down. Place the date paste in an airtight container and reserve in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. You can also freeze it for up to 2 months.
Bonne appétit!