— Yvonne Procuniar

You need to soak the dates first before you blend them. And I don't know if you did, I pit my dates, I wash them, I pit them, I look inside each one because I wanna make sure there's no mold. Very rare to see black inside, but it does happen sometimes. So I don't want to eat that. And then I pour water over the dates and really let them soak. If I'm in a hurry, I might hot soak them, which means I would cook them on the stove in this liquid. Um, I use ample liquid because to me the liquid with, you know, the soaking liquid, and this holds true for all dried fruits. The soaking liquid is like liquid gold. It's sweet and delicious. So I'm using a Vitamix, which is a high speed blender to make the date paste using my very soft dates. And I don't have a problem with the skins. Um, perhaps your dates weren't soft enough when you started or if you were using a food processor or a, you know, a blender that was less strong than the Vitamix type blenders, that might be an issue. I know that I can make prune paste, for example, when I soak the prunes long enough using just an immersion blender and there are no skins involved there. So I think for you it's a matter of getting them soft enough. And you know what, if, if anybody here is interested in date paste, um, options besides using water, I have soaked them in coffee. I happen to like the taste of coffee. If I'm gonna use date paste that's been made with coffee, I make sure to use decaf coffee because I don't know who I'm serving. I don't, I start my day with coffee with a shot of espresso and that's it for the day until the next day for me now. Or I think I wouldn't be able to sleep, but I've soaked dates in lots of different things. It's just a matter of getting them soft enough.