Our date recipes count dates, and dates don’t come in one size. Venny gave readers the same answer in 2022 and again in 2024, when one asked what we mean by “regular” dates: “the typical smaller in size dates. The medjool dates are larger and I recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh them.”
One Medjool does the work of two to two and a half of the dates in our recipes. Weigh them if you can.
The short answer: Medjool dates are large, soft and sticky. Deglet Noor dates are smaller and firmer. Swap them by weight, not by count: one Medjool, about 24 grams, replaces two to two and a half of the regular dates in our recipes.
For date paste, soak dry dates in warm water for about 10 minutes, then blend them with some of the soaking water. To store dates for months, seal them in a moisture-proof container and freeze them: freezing keeps their quality better than the fridge and doesn’t hurt the texture.
We use dates in 55 recipes, and not one calls for Medjool: 51 say “regular” dates, three just say “dates”, and one uses date syrup.
Medjool vs Deglet Noor Dates: What Differs
USDA has analyzed both. Per date, the difference is mostly size:
| Medjool | Deglet Noor | |
|---|---|---|
| One pitted date weighs | 24 g | 7.1 g |
| Carbohydrate per date | 18 g | 5.3 g |
| Sugar per date | 16 g | 4.5 g |
| Fiber per date | 1.6 g | 0.6 g |
| Potassium per date | 167 mg | 47 mg |
| Sugar per 100 g | 66 g | 63 g |
| Fiber per 100 g | 6.7 g | 8.0 g |
| Main sugars | Glucose and fructose; almost no sucrose | Sucrose, glucose and fructose, roughly a third each |
Weight for weight they’re close. The sugar inside is a little different, though: almost all of a Medjool’s sugar is glucose and fructose, while more than a third of a Deglet Noor’s is sucrose.
The UC Davis Postharvest Center classes Deglet Noor as a semi-soft date, with a longer storage life than soft dates such as Medjool.
Medjool vs Regular Dates in Our Recipes
Our 55 date recipes, by type:
| What we make | Recipes |
|---|---|
| Energy balls, bites, truffles, no-bake bars, brownies and no-bake cookies | 23 |
| Cakes, pies, cheesecake, baked bars and desserts | 11 |
| Breakfasts: oatmeal, overnight oats, baked oatmeal, rice pudding, crepes | 9 |
| Baked cookies | 8 |
| Savory: a bean dip, a garlic sauce, a chickpea salad | 3 |
| Jam | 1 |
In most of them, dates do two jobs at once: they sweeten, and they hold things together. In our 20 no-bake energy bites, 19 of the 20 are held together and sweetened by dates; the one exception uses dried cranberries.
If you only have Medjool, weigh them. Many of our recipe cards give the dates in grams as well, so weigh your Medjool to that number.
Where you only have a count, our regular dates weigh about 10 to 12 grams each: 5 dates are 50 grams in our brownie bites, and 12 are 150 grams in our chocolate raspberry cake. A cup of them is 100 to 115 grams. Weight for weight, Medjool hold about the same water as Deglet Noor, about 21 grams per 100 according to USDA, so they shouldn’t make the mixture wetter.
How to Make Date Paste
Date paste is just dates blended until smooth. Several of our recipes make it as they go:
- Soak dry dates in warm water for about 10 minutes. Our no-bake chocolate pudding pie uses ½ cup of warm water for a cup of dates.
- Blend them in a food processor with the soaking water until you have a thick puree. Our oat apple cake saves the rest of the soaking water and adds it to the batter.
On that cake, Venny explains why: pitted dates “are often a bit dry and I prefer to soak them in warm water for about 10 mins.” Soft, moist dates can skip the soak. Our 3-ingredient energy balls and brownie bites go straight into the food processor.
One tip from our energy bites round-up: when nuts go in too, grind them before the dates. The other way around, the dates coat the blades and nothing breaks down.
Dates can even sweeten a quick, uncooked jam: our strawberry jam blends ⅔ cup of dates into 2 cups of strawberries.
How to Pit Dates
Wash them, split each date and lift the pit out, the method the National Center for Home Food Preservation gives before freezing them. Buying them already pitted saves the step, and it’s what almost all of our recipes call for.
How to Store Medjool Dates, and Can You Freeze Them?
Yes, and freezing is the best way to keep them for months. The UC Davis Postharvest Center’s advice:
- Keep dates in a moisture-proof container. In damp air, dates absorb moisture.
- Keep them away from strong smells. Dates pick up the aroma of onions, garlic and potatoes.
- For long storage, freeze them. Freezing at 0°F keeps their quality much better than a refrigerator, and because dates are so high in sugar, it doesn’t damage their texture the way it does with most fruit. Commercially, dates are kept at 32°F for 6 to 12 months, and a home fridge runs warmer than that.
To freeze, the National Center for Home Food Preservation says to pit them, leave them whole or press them into a puree, and pack them into containers with a little headspace.
Spots under the skin can be sugar. UC Davis calls it sugar spotting: sugar crystallizing under the skin and in the flesh, mainly in soft dates whose sugar is mostly glucose and fructose. It changes the texture and look but not the taste, and cold storage makes it less likely. Mold is a different thing, and UC Davis lists it on dates that are kept damp, one more reason for a dry, sealed container.
An alcohol smell means yeast has fermented the date, and bacteria can then turn it to vinegar. UC Davis lists both as spoilage.
Dates vs Sugar: Diabetes, Kidneys and Teeth
Dates are about two-thirds sugar by weight, so in a recipe they do much of table sugar’s job. What comes with that sugar is the difference: per 100 grams, Deglet Noor dates carry 8 grams of fiber and 656 mg of potassium. White sugar carries no fiber and 2 mg of potassium.
One question decides how we use them: is the sugar making a whole food palatable, or is the sugar the food? A few chopped dates on oatmeal, or two in a bean dip, are the first kind. An energy ball is mostly dates, which makes it the second: a treat, made from better ingredients.
From Venny, a medical doctor and a specialist in Nutrition and Dietetics: a whole date is a fruit, and I treat it like one. UK health guidance agrees: the sugar in fruit doesn’t count as “free sugar” (the kind health guidelines say to limit) unless the fruit is juiced or pureed. Date syrup counts as free sugar. Date paste keeps the fiber of the whole fruit, but under that guidance its sugar counts as free sugar too.
If you have diabetes, dates are carbohydrate, so count them: one Medjool carries about 18 grams, 16 of them sugar, and a Deglet Noor about 5. Their glycemic index (how fast a food raises blood sugar) is mostly low: five varieties tested in the United Arab Emirates scored 46 to 55, both in healthy people and in 10 people whose type 2 diabetes was managed by diet or metformin. The test portion was 50 grams of carbohydrate, about three Medjool, and neither Medjool nor Deglet Noor was among the varieties.
If you have kidney disease, or have otherwise been told to limit potassium, dates are on the high list. The National Kidney Foundation counts 5 dates as a high-potassium serving. Five Deglet Noor carry about 235 mg; five Medjool about 835 mg. For everyone else, that potassium is a point in their favor.
And for your teeth, the NHS lists dried fruit among the sweet foods best kept to mealtimes.
Venny is a medical doctor and a specialist in Nutrition and Dietetics; Andy holds a master’s degree in psychology. This is general information rather than medical advice.
In one 16-week trial, 100 adults with type 2 diabetes ate three dates a day or none. The date group’s HbA1c, the long-term blood sugar measure, didn’t change. Their total cholesterol dipped, but not by significantly more than the no-dates group’s.
Andy: Any sweetener can move your baseline, including a good one. Since our son was born in 2024, our cooking has drifted toward easier: not toward junk, but toward more lightly processed food, and with it more sweetness. No single food changed. The sweet things just showed up more often, and I only noticed because I wanted something sweet all the time and it had stopped feeling like a treat. That’s the signal to watch for.
Which Dates to Buy for What
| What you’re making | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Energy balls, bites, no-bake bars | Regular pitted dates, or Medjool by weight | 19 of our 20 no-bake bites are held together by dates |
| Date paste for cakes and pies | Regular pitted dates, soaked if dry | Our recipes soak dry dates about 10 minutes |
| Stuffing or eating whole | Medjool | Large and soft |
| Overnight oats and oatmeal | A few chopped dates | Our overnight oats use 2 to 5 |
| Long storage | Either, frozen | Freezing keeps quality best |
Where to Start With Dates
Make our 3-ingredient date energy balls: half a cup of dates, cacao and hazelnut butter, blended and rolled. They take about 10 minutes, and they show you quickly whether your dates are soft enough to bind or need a soak first.
And, always, seek health consciously.
Read Next
- 20 No-Bake Energy Bites, Fewest Ingredients First
- 30 Vegan Desserts, Fruit-Sweetened First
- Egg Substitutes for Baking: Which Binder Works for What
- Rolled, Quick or Steel Cut: Which Oats to Buy for What
- Flax, Chia or Psyllium: What Each One Does
Sources (8)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dates, medjool (FDC 168191); Dates, deglet noor (FDC 171726); Sugars, granulated (FDC 169655). FoodData Central, SR Legacy. View
- Kader AA. Date: produce fact sheet. UC Davis Postharvest Research and Extension Center. View
- Kader AA. What is the recommended method of storing dates in my home? UC Davis Postharvest Research and Extension Center. View
- National Center for Home Food Preservation. Freezing dates. University of Georgia. View
- NHS. Sugar: the facts. View
- Alkaabi JM, Al-Dabbagh B, Ahmad S, et al. Glycemic indices of five varieties of dates in healthy and diabetic subjects. Nutrition Journal. 2011;10:59. View
- National Kidney Foundation. Potassium and your CKD diet. View
- Alalwan TA, Perna S, Mandeel QA, et al. Effects of daily low-dose date consumption on glycemic control, lipid profile, and quality of life in adults with pre- and type 2 diabetes: a randomized controlled trial. Nutrients. 2020;12(1):217. View
