Homemade Date Sugar

I am such a sweet freak. I love love love anything and everything sweet..give me chips or cookies to choose between? Cookies no problem. But recently a lot of studies i've been seeing about refined white sugar have been pretty scary. For example, did you know that your fat intake hardly determines how much weight you gain, but it is the amount of sugar that really does? Or that some studies have even linked high refined sugar intake (ie white sugar, corn syrup, etc) is directly linked to cancer? ...yikes!! So what, may you ask, can we do to change that? Use alternative sweeteners! Raw honey, agave nectar, blackstrap unsulfured molasses, my homemade date raisin syrup, and now to add to the line of date sweeteners, date sugar! The best thing about using dates as a sweetener is that they are a whole food, so along with their delicious sweet flavor you're also getting all the yummy nutrients that they naturally contain, as opposed to white sugar for example, which is so processed and refined that it has almost nothing that the sugar cane plan actually had (that would be in the blackstrap molasses..a by product of sugar making).  This date is really similar in appearance to brown sugar, though mine turned out more powdery and less sticky which isn't a bad thing at all. I think it's really awesome in baked goods, oatmeal, etc. It doesn't dissolve quite as well as other sweeteners, but heck there's always the syrups. But really give this a shot! Its pretty pricey in stores, so very easy to make at home, and so very delicious!

Your body's going to love you!!

Homemade Date Sugar

3 Cups medjool dates

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Fahrenheit

2. Slice the dates in half lengthwise and lay them out with the hollow part facing up on a lined cookie sheet

3. Bake for around 7-8 hours

4. After 8 hours they should be pretty crispy. Turn the oven off and leave the dates in the oven for another 6-8 hours. 

5. After their resting period, the dates should be hard and crunchy with pretty much no moisture left in them.

6. Place them in a blender or food processor and blend until the hard crunchy dates have been ground into a fine powder. Store in an airtight container or mason jar and enjoy!

Health Benefits:

Dates- Contain Vitamin K, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, food Folate, Folic acid, as well as minerals such as Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, Zinc, Copper, and Manganese. They also contain awesome-for-you amino acids!

Sources:

http://www.medjooldates.com/faq-nutrition.asp