Having some dates waiting to be used, as I bought too many when making sticky toffee pudding I decided to use them up by making some Date Bars. I wanted a nice crumbly bar with a layer of soft and sticky dates in the middle. So to accomplish this I decided to use some oats and chopped hazelnuts.
The recipe below is not overly complicated but it does have quite a few ingredients. It also takes a while to make, since you need to allow the dates to cool after boiling them with some other ingredients to get the nice soft and sticky texture.
The resultant bars are very tasty and nice and crumbly too. I am very pleased with them, despite the fact that they don’t look to be the prettiest things.
Ingredients:
For the date mixture:
450 g pitted dates, chopped
200 g caster sugar
125 ml water
zest of one lemon finely grated
zest of one orange finely grated
For the crumble mixture:
225 g plain flour
120 g rolled oats
220 g dark brown muscovado sugar
225 g butter, melted
110 g chopped hazelnuts
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
Icing sugar for dusting the tops.
Method:
In a medium saucepan bring the dates, sugar, water, lemon zest and orange zest to the boil.
Preheat the oven to 170 C /150 C Fan Gas 3/340 F.
In a medium bowl, stir together the oats, flour, bicarbonate of soda, dark brown soft sugar and cinnamon.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven.