How to make Date Syrup
I have been looking at vegan alternatives to using honey in my self preserving cleanser formulations. There are a few options that can be bought from the supermarket; sugar syrup, black strap molasses, and carob syrup are a few of them. After doing a little research, I settled on date syrup based on wide availability of dates and it’s syrup. As part of this research I also tested out date syrup, both my own and shop bought, in the Honey Foaming Balm Cosmetic Formulation and created a new PDF formulation called Foaming Date Balm. Below is a small amount of research into the glorious date followed by a mini tutorial on how to make your own version at home.
What are Dates?
Dates are the fruits of the date palm belonging to the Aceraceae family. They form part of the daily diet worldwide, providing important health, nutritional and economic value.
Several varieties are found worldwide, predominantly in hot and humid regions. Consumption of dates goes back to ancient civilisations where they were valued for their nutritional benefit and natural sweetness. Their cultivation by many nations has provided a major source of wealth for local populations. The earliest evidence of cultivation of dates was in Iraq (ancient Mesopotamia)in 3000 BC. Date farming began on the Arabian peninsular, extending to North Africa and the middle east and later was introduced to Southern Spain and other warm European countries.
Globally there are around 6000 varieties of dates, with the majority still being cultivated in West Asia (middle east) and North Africa, with variability in their characteristics - variety in tree, fruits and leaves and variety in colour, flavour and texture of fruits. There are also varying methods of storing and preservation. In this respect there are four main categories of dates: fresh, wet, semi-dry and dry.
Nutritional Value of Dates
Dates contain a good amount of sucrose, fructose and glucose (between 65-80%), protein (1.22-3.30%) and fat (0.11-7.33%). They are also rich in varieties of B complex vitamins, amino acids and fibre. Due to high sun exposure they have the richest concentration of polyphenols of all dried fruits. Polyphenols are a group of antioxidants found in plants known to scavenge free radicals linked to human disease.
Date seeds are a rich source of carbohydrates, oil, dietary fibre, and protein; they also contain bioactive phenolic compounds that may possess potential biological properties. In addition, its rich chemical composition makes date seeds suitable for use in food product formulation, cosmetics, and medicinal supplements.
Dates are rich in antioxidants, especially tannins which may help to prevent cell damage and reduce inflammation. They also contain vitamin C and D which may help boost collagen production and concomitant skin elasticity. Pantothenic acid is also a feature of this fruit, which improves skin barrier. Date fruit contains flavonoid glycosides such as luteolin, quercetin, and apigenin. A mixture of selenium and phenolic compounds provide protection from skin oxidation particularly from UV damage.
Making Date Syrup
Making date syrup is easy. It involves boiling the dates in water to extract the nutrients and sugars, straining the pulp and reducing the resultant date juice down to a sugar rich concentrated syrup. It is no more complicated than that. In any case, I have taken the opportunity to do a visual tutorial below. I used dried Tunisian dates. Because they were dry I needed to pre-soak them. If you have semi dry or ‘wet’ dates, you can place directly into your boiling pan.
1. De-seed and soak dates for 30-45 minutes. This helps remove any impurities (such as preservatives) and moistens the dates, especially if they are dehydrated.
2. Strain, top up with water about an inch or two above the dates. Remember this is the extraction phase and any excess liquid will be boiled off later. Place pan directly on a heat source and allow to reach a rolling boil. Turn down heat to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 2-3 hours. Mash up with a potato masher as you go. Don’t let it burn and top up with water if necessary.
4. Place the watery date extract back onto the heat, bring to boil then allow to simmer. Reducing the liquid to a syrup will take approximately 45 minutes to one hour. Go back to it every 5 minutes or so watching carefully so that it doesn’t burn and to give it a good stir. You need to keep an eye on it as it thickens and you will know it is ready if you scrape the sides of the pan and it looks as if it is congealed. Take of heat and allow to cool.
5. This is the date syrup. It is thick and has a water content of 20% as measured by a refractometer.
3. Allow date extract to cool then strain over a cheese cloth and sieve into a pan. Squeeze out any liquids with your hands.
References
Alkhoori MA, Kong AS, Aljaafari MN, Abushelaibi A, Erin Lim SH, Cheng WH, Chong CM, Lai KS. Biochemical Composition and Biological Activities of Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Seeds: A Review. Biomolecules. 2022 Nov 3;12(11):1626. doi: 10.3390/biom12111626. PMID: 36358976; PMCID: PMC9687710.
Al-Karmadi, A.; Okoh, A.I. An Overview of Date (Phoenix dactylifera) Fruits as an Important Global Food Resource. Foods 2024, 13, 1024. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13071024
M. Iftikhar Hussain, Muhammad Farooq, Qamar Abbas Syed, Nutritional and biological characteristics of the date palm fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.) – A review,Food Bioscience,
Volume 34, 2020, 100509, ISSN 2212-4292, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbio.2019.100509.