Date Squares
A great way to get dates into date haters, dates have a multitude of health benefits. These Date Squares will not win any beauty contests, but they are loved by all adults and children who come to the house. My children usually ask for them when they are studying; I made a tray yesterday with GCSE Mocks loaming. The butter and sugar quantity looks horrendous but the brain does burn a lot of energy studying.
Date Squares
Preparation time
Cooking time
Total time
A great way to get dates into date haters, dates have a multitude of health benefits. These Date Squares will not win any beauty contests, but they are loved by all adults and children who come to the house.
Marissa: www.marissa.co
Recipe type: Treats
Cuisine: South African
Servings: 25
Ingredients
- 250g butter
- 180ml sugar
- 500g dried chopped dates
- 200g rich tea biscuits or digestive biscuits or Graham Crackers broken into large chunks (if you are based in South Africa you can use Marie or Tennis Biscuits)
- 125ml desiccated coconut
Method
- Line a tin 30cm x 25cm x 1cm with grease proof paper.
- In a pot over a low heat melt butter, sugar and dates together.
- At this stage you have two options.
- Remove from heat and with a stick blender blend the mixture till it is smooth.
- Alternatively if you are partial to a courser texture you can skip this step.
- My children won’t eat a date but will eat date squares, if the mixture has been blended.
- Stir in the crushed biscuits into the date mixture until they are totally coated in the date mixture.
- Tip the mixture into the tin and smooth the mixture out with the back of a wooden spoon.
- Generously sprinkle the coconut over the top and with the palm of your hand or the back of a spoon, lightly press the coconut into date mixture.
- Place the tray into the fridge to harden, this takes about an hour.
- I always cut the date squares into varying sizes, longer bars to take to school, smaller squares as a pick me up treat.
- As they are sticky I place each square into paper cup cake holder, you can skip this step.
- Best stored in fridge if you live in a warmer climate so they stay crunchy, in the winter you can store them in a cake tin or a jar.
Tips
Don't worry if you don't have the right sized tin, use what you have or spread the mixture into two smaller tins.
