{recipe} Palm Springs Date Shake

Have I mentioned that one of my favorite places in the entire world is Palm Springs, California? I love it so much, I got married there. Not only does it offer breathtaking desert landscapes and mid-century modern marvels, it’s also home to a very specific regional culinary delight: the date shake.

It’s estimated that 99% of US-grown dates are from the Palm Springs area, so it’s not all that surprising they invented this delicious way to enjoy them. Originating in the Middle East, dates have been around for thousands of years, and many cultures believe them to be essential for health. They were introduced to California by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s, who found that the desert in the Coachella Valley, around Palm Springs, was the perfect spot to grow dates.

Dates can get a bad rap–probably because they’re easily confused with unsexy things like prunes–but a fresh date is a thing of beauty, sweet as candy and good in so many recipes. Dates feature in my all-time favorite cookie recipe, Robert’s chewy amazing oatmeal cookies. If you have really sweet, soft dates, you can also make them into a super simple frozen treat I call “ice cream dates.” Yes, dates have a pretty high sugar content, but they also have a lot of fiber, potassium, antioxidants, and other nutrients. People make some pretty outlandish health claims about dates, but there is some reasonably strong evidence to back it up: I found peer-reviewed journal studies showing that dates may stimulate the immune system, protect the kidneys, aid pregnant women with labor and delivery outcomes, and prevent certain kinds of stroke. Furthermore, nutrition scientists have found that due to their nutritional content, they may be “an almost ideal food.”

Of course, this date shake involves ice cream and milk, so you might be questioning just how healthy it is. Forgetting the ice cream for a minute, many Middle Easterners believe that mixing dates and milk enhances the nutritional qualities of both. In fact, dates in milk is a traditional way to break the Ramadan fast. Dates and milk together are also one of the first foods introduced to babies after breast milk. But it’s not really about the health for me, it’s more about closing my eyes and being transported temporarily to that desert date palm landscape I love so much.

Recipe: Palm Springs Date Shake
I asked how they make the shakes at Oasis Date Gardens and this is what they told me. Makes one. And don’t worry, this ain’t rocket science, y’all.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup fresh dates (I like to use Medjools)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup vanilla ice cream

METHOD:

• Remove pits from dates.
• Put dates and milk in a blender and mix until smooth.
• Add ice cream and blend until creamy.
• Drink immediately.

P.S. If you liked this recipe, you may also like: How to Make “Ice Cream” Dates