We had a bit of a slow morning so I decided to try it out. Although very simple, the results certainly warrant mentioning on here. I followed Mario’s directions and just mixed an approximate 1:4 ratio of date syrup to tahini. I’ve seen some recipes that also mention adding lemon juice. I served it with a lightly warmed (but not toasted), sliced Seeded Bloomer. I also made Espresso from some coffee we got back from Mount Elgon (which I added a touch of sugar in the middle-eastern way).

I’d describe the taste similar to a sweet peanut butter with a hint of dates. Jenny mentioned Nutella which I probably shouldn’t mention (we don’t want to associate ourselves with Nutella). It was really delicious but possibly slightly too sweet for me by the end, but I don’t really eat sweet stuff and I had put sugar in my coffee too! Next time I’ll try less syrup, I don’t think it really needed lemon juice (although I have to try too). It would probably also be improved with flat bread rather than the bloomer.

It reminded me of a snack a friend of mine from UAE prepared. It was a form of dates somewhere between whole dried dates and the syrup, apparently it was made with the highest quality dates – we ate it with a flat bread.

Whilst I was making it I also tried some Tahini by itself, usually we only tend to use it for making Hummus or eat it in Falafel wraps. It’s quite nutty but also slightly bitter (I like). I see that some people have it on bread instead of peanut butter – another thing to try.

On the back of my previous success with Peanut Butter and Date Flapjacks, I decided to try another experiment with the date syrup. I’m not a huge fan of desserts in general but ever since we finished the flapjacks I’ve been having a craving for something similar. Usually I tend to leave the making of desserts to Jenny but I thought I’d have another go.

Ingredients

Syrup

• 1lb plums
• 3tbsp date syrup
• a knob of butter
• 1tbsp golden caster sugar

Crust

• 2 oz butter
• 3 oz plain flour
• 1tbsp ground almonds
• 2 oz porridge oats
• 1tsp cinnamon

This was my first crumble but there really wasn’t much to it. I loosely followed some other recipes.

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C
2. Stone and quarter plums.
3. Melt the knob of butter in pan, add the plums, date syrup and sugar. If very dry and a touch of water. Simmer for 20-25mins with occasional stirring until you get a pulpy syrup.
4. Rub butter and flour to get ‘breadcrumbs’. Mix in sugar, almonds, cinnamon and oats.
5. Pour plum syrup into a baking dish, top with crust. Baked for 30mins, until slightly golden.

The crumble ended up pretty good. The plum and dates were extremely rich and needed the extra think crust layer. We served it with vanilla ice cream which worked pretty well. Creme Fraiche would be nice too. The only downside to this dish was that there wasn’t enough. We ended up eating it in one go. Next time I’d double the quantity to (serving 4) so we can eat it two days in a row.

A while ago now, whilst visiting some of the local asian shops I found a jar of Date Syrup. Being quite into Dates I decided to buy some without anything particular in mind to use it for. It’s sat at the back of our cupboards for a few months now, partly because I keep forgetting its there but also because I can’t find many recipes that use it.

I’d been promising Jenny for a while now that I’d make some peanut butter biscuits, again that’s not happened either. Today I decided to experiment and mix the two together – rather than biscuits I made flapjacks, making use of the many packets of seeds and oats we had.

Ingredients (10 bars)

• 4 oz Butter
• 1.5 oz Muscovado Sugar
• 2 tbsp Date Syrup
• 2 tbsp Peanut Butter (unsweetened is good, flapjacks are sweet enough)
• 2 tbsp Sultanas
• 5 oz Porridge Oats
• 1 tbsp Sesame Seeds
• 1 tbsp Sunflower Seeds

Method

There really was nothing to this:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Cover baking tray with grease-proof paper.
• Melt the butter in a big pan.Once melted, add the sugar, syrup and peanut butter. Let it all dissolve into a smooth paste.
• Add the sultanas, oats and seeds, mix it all together.
• Layer the mixture onto the baking tray, 1/2 inch thick. Cook for 18mins.
• Let the flapjack cool for 15mins, cut into bars.

Rather than the overly rich and sticky flapjacks you’d get these turned out to have quite a wholesome, almost malty taste. They’re also slightly crumbly – perfect for having with some (ice) cream.

Some notes on Date Syrup

The Date Syrup was pretty much as you’d expect – dark, rich, sweet, syrupy. Although it’s sweet, it’s not sickly – something I could tolerate – less sweet than golden syrup. I definitely intend to use some more of the stuff, I think it works really well with nuts, I might try some sort of cake with Walnuts. It might even work with some sort of Moroccan Lamb dish.