Q: My boyfriend just sent me a package of date crystals straight from the famous Shields Date Gardens in Palm Springs. I'm very excited, but apart from adding them to my morning oatmeal and trying them in a smoothie, I'm not sure how else to use them. Any ideas for using date crystals?
Sent by Molly
Editor: Molly, I've never worked with date crystals, but from what I understand, they are small, dehydrated date pieces that can be used dry as a sweetener or rehydrated to add both sweetness and a little texture. Here are a few ideas for using whole dates, most of which could be adapted to date crystals (sprinkled over salads, mixed into baked goods, even infused into liquor!):
→ What To Do With an Abundance of Dates
Readers, do you have any suggestions for using date crystals?
Related: Baking With Dates: Which Variety Reigns Supreme?
(Image: Molly via The Kitchn submissions page)
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It might be interesting to make brownies or blondies with it--something fudgy and forgiving, since I'm sure they behave differently than sugar.
Marinades and salad dressings!
Use them to rim your cocktail glasses or in any sweet & sour recipe for extra dimension. I bet rolling a slightly bitter chocolate truffle in that caramel-y sugar would be delish if you want to guild the lily.
Make a simple syrup to use in cocktails - equal parts sugar and water. Would be a great sweetener for tea too, or lemonade.
A colleague of mine (I'm a food historian by training) came across this website for Date Crystal Chess Pie while researching the development of the Imperial Valley in CA. Dates were (and are) a key element of the agricultural economy out there. He made it for an impromptu pie competition (among friends) and won, hands down! It's a fun CA-local twist on a Southern favorite, and tastes AMAZING. Mostly because it's made of butter and sugar. ;) Recipe follows:
(The recipe is an older one and certainly cuts to the chase. I think my colleague just used a homemade or good-quality store-bought 9" pie crust and made the pie that way. You might have to adjust baking times if you don't to the mini pies - gem pans were kind of like muffin tins).
Date Crystal Chess Pies:
1 cup sugar;
½ cup butter;
½ cup milk;
3 egg yolks;
1 cup Shields Date Crystals;
¾ cup walnut meats;
1 teaspoon vanilla;
Directions: Cream sugar and butter, add well beaten egg yolks, walnuts, and vanilla. Cook Date Crystals and milk to paste. When cool add to the first mixture. Line gem pans with pie crust. Put in 1 tablespoon of the above mixture in each shell and bake until crust is light brown. Cover with meringue and brown. If preferred, whipped cream may be used as a topping.
Whoops, my colleague came across this RECIPE, hah.
Yay Shields! I have many fond memories of going there as a child and getting a date shake. I think the recipe is on the side of the date crystal package. I know it's getting cool, maybe too cool for a milkshake, but you should give it a try!
Use it as a sugar replacement in desserts. Especially bran muffins, banana bread, zucchini bread and carrot cake-- tends to go over VERY well. Most raw desserts call for dates and a food processor so these are pretty perfect if you don't wanna spend 10 minutes pitting medjools. (See Ani Phyo's Raw Food Desserts cookbook, it's got the most decadent chocolate cake recipe I've ever tried).