DATE SYRUP, SILAN
Posted on: July 2, 2020. Updated on: July 12, 2023.
by Carolina Gelen
Silan, a magical syrup made using only two ingredients: dates and water! Silan constitutes a surely healthier alternative to your store bought pancake syrup or simple syrup (made out of cane sugar and water) due to the fact that it only uses the natural sugars found in dates, no other additional refined sugar. This dark amber syrup has a deep caramel like taste, it is very sweet and flavorful! Date syrup is very versatile and can be used in so many ways: drizzle it on pancakes, toasts, cakes, ice cream, use it as a coffee sweetner, glaze or marinate some meat in it, add it to your salad dressing, the options are endless!
INGREDIENTS (150 to 200 grams syrup)
GRAMS
- 500 grams dates
- 1200 grams water
- additional water for soaking the dates
CUPS
- 4 cups roughly chopped dates
- 5 cups of water
- additional water for soaking the dates
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1
Remove the pit of the dates and discard any bad dates you find in your batch. Roughly chop the dates.
Step 2
Add the dates to a bowl, cover them with boiling water and let them soak either overnight (in the fridge), either 30 minutes to 1 hour before starting to make the syrup.
Step 3
Once the dates have soften, discard the soaking liquid and rinse them.
Step 4
Add the 500 grams of dates (4 cups) and the 1200 grams of water (5 cups) to a pot. Bring everything to a boil, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer the mixture for 40 minutes to 1 hour. The simmering time will vary depending on the type of dates used and their sugar content. Stir the mixture from time to time to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. You should stop whenever the dates have fully disintegrated and the mixture looks like a runny jam (with very little liquid at the bottom).
Step 5
Time to strain the mixture! You can do this using a fine mesh strainer or a cheesecloth. Pour the runny jam like date mixture into your straining utensil and squeeze out all the liquid out of it.
Step 6
Add the freshly squeezed date juice to a clean pot. Bring the liquid to a boil, turn the heat to low / medium-low and simmer away for 20 to 40 minutes. Again, the simmering time will vary depending on the type of dates used and their sugar content. You will know your syrup is ready whenever it coats a clean spoon. To check that dip a spoon in the date syrup, if the syrup doesn’t fall off and you are able to trace a line with your finger on the spoon, the syrup should be ready. The longer you let it go, the thicker it will get!
Step 7
Cool off the syrup and store it in a jar. You can keep it on the counter or wherever you would normally store a jar of honey. The fridge works too.
Drizzle this on pancakes, crepes, cakes, toasts, ice cream, add it to your coffee, glaze some ribs, wings, stakes with it, your options are endless here!
DATE SYRUP, SILAN
Ingredients
- 500 grams dates
- 1200 grams water
- additional water for soaking the dates
CUPS
- 4 cups roughly chopped dates
- 5 cups of water
- additional water for soaking the dates
Instructions
- Remove the pit of the dates and discard any bad dates you find in your batch. Roughly chop the dates.
- Add the dates to a bowl, cover them with boiling water and let them soak either overnight (in the fridge), either 30 minutes to 1 hour before starting to make the syrup.
- Once the dates have soften, discard the soaking liquid and rinse them.
- Add the 500 grams of dates (4 cups) and the 1200 grams of water (5 cups) to a pot. Bring everything to a boil, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer the mixture for 40 minutes to 1 hour. The simmering time will vary depending on the type of dates used and their sugar content. Stir the mixture from time to time to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. You should stop whenever the dates have fully disintegrated and the mixture looks like a runny jam (with very little liquid at the bottom).
Time to strain the mixture! You can do this using a fine mesh strainer or a cheesecloth. Pour the runny jam like date mixture into your straining utensil and squeeze out all the liquid out of it.
- Add the freshly squeezed date juice to a clean pot. Bring the liquid to a boil, turn the heat to low / medium-low and simmer away for 20 to 40 minutes. Again, the simmering time will vary depending on the type of dates used and their sugar content. You will know your syrup is ready whenever it coats a clean spoon. To check that dip a spoon in the date syrup, if the syrup doesn’t fall off and you are able to trace a line with your finger on the spoon, the syrup should be ready. The longer you let it go, the thicker it will get!
Cool off the syrup and store it in a jar. You can keep it on the counter or wherever you would normally store a jar of honey. The fridge works too.
Drizzle this on pancakes, crepes, cakes, toasts, ice cream, add it to your coffee, glaze some ribs, wings, stakes with it, your options are endless here!
holy shat that’s amazing.
It really is tbh
Do you have any suggestions of what to do with the date pulp that is discarded? Thanks!
That’s a great question, Flavia! The date pulp won’t have much taste after simmering it for so long (most of its natural sugars will be released in the water), therefore you couldn’t really count on it to bring flavor to a dish, but you can definitely use it as a source of fiber: add a couple of tablespoons of it in a smoothie, add it to energy bars, maybe even in some veggie burgers, that kind of stuff. Hope this helps 🙂
I have to try this! How long can you store it for? Thinking about gifting it for christmas:)
I would say this can last up to a month, maybe even more to be honest! I agree, this would be a great gift for the holidays 🙂
Do you have recommendations on the type of dates to use? I’ve purchased silan in the past, but never realized it was so easy to make.