Date Bars
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Serves: 20 small squares
 
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups/8 oz of soft dates - I used medjool
  • ¾ cup of water (or more, depending on how dry your dates are)
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 4 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar
  • 1¼ cups rolled oats
  • ¾ cup whole wheat flour
  • a generous grating of nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 400F/200C
  2. Grease an 8 x 8 (inches) square pan
  3. Remove the pits from the dates and add the pitted fruit and the water to a small pot. Simmer over medium heat and squash the dates and water together until you have a thick paste. This should take about 5 minutes.
  4. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter and olive oil together.
  5. Measure out 1 cup of oats and blend with a hand blender (food processor, etc) until the oats are broken slightly - you want the texture of instant/porridge oats here. There should be some floury bits, some small oats, and a few untouched flakes. Alternately, use 1 cup of instant/porridge oats.
  6. Combine the oil/butter, processed oats, sugar, flour, spices, baking soda, and remaining ¼ cup rolled oats in a medium bowl. Mix together until you get a coarse rubble.
  7. Press ¾ of the rubble down into the base of the baking pan. Add the date paste and spread to cover the base. Top with the remaining oaty rubble and lightly press into the dates. There will be gaps between the topping and the date mixture.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes, or until lightly golden. Cool in pan.
Recipe by The Bright Kitchen at https://www.thebrightkitchen.com/date-bars/