Squares Bar

[Eustolia Pennycuff]

Ithink of this as a "back-pocket recipe," one I can pull out when I need something quick and wonderful, something I can make on the spur of the moment without trekking to the market. The cake is primarily apples (or pears or mangoes, see Bonne Ides) and the batter, which resembles one you'd use for crpes, has more flavor than you'd imagine the short list of ingredients could deliver and turns thick and custard-like in the oven. Through some magic of chemistry, the apples, which go into the pan in a mishmash, seem to line themselves up and they come out baked through but retaining just enough structure to give you something to bite into. That it can be served minutes out of the oven makes this the perfect last-minute sweet.

I've made this with several kinds of apples and the cake has always been good. In general, I go for juicy apples that are not too soft (Gala and Fujis work well), and if I've got a few different kinds on hand, I use them all. I slice the apples on a mandoline or Benriner, tools that make fast work of the job, give you thin slices and allow you to use almost all the fruit. When you're finished slicing an apple on one of these, all you've got left is a neat rectangle of core.

Slice the apples using a mandoline, Benriner or a sharp knife, turning the fruit as you reach the core. The slices should be about 1/16 th inch thick-- elegantly thin, but not so thin that they're transparent and fragile. Discard the cores.

Working in a large bowl with a whisk, beat the eggs, sugar and salt together for about 2 minutes, until the sugar just about dissolves and, more important, the eggs are pale. Whisk in the vanilla, followed by the milk and melted butter. Turn the flour into the bowl and stir with the whisk until the batter is smooth. Add the apples, switch to a flexible spatula and gently fold the apples into the batter, turning everything around until each thin slice is coated in batter. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top as evenly as you can--it will be bumpy; that's its nature.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until golden brown, uniformly puffed-- make sure the middle of the cake has risen--and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.

Using a long knife, cut the cake into 8 squares (or as many rectangles as you'd like) in the pan (being careful not to damage the pan), or unmold the cake onto a rack, flip it onto a plate and cut into squares. Either way, give the squares a dusting of confectioners' sugar before serving, if you'd like.

Bonne Ides: You can add a couple of tablespoons of dark rum, Calvados, applejack or Armagnac or a drop (really just a drop) of pure almond extract to the batter. If you have an orange or a lemon handy, you can grate the zest over the sugar and rub the ingredients together until they're fragrant. You can also change the fruit. Pears are perfect and a combination of apples and pears even better. Or make the cake with 2 firm mangoes--the texture will be different, but still good--or very thinly sliced quinces. Finally, if you want to make this look a little dressier, you can warm some apple jelly in a microwave and spread a thin layer of it over the top with a pastry brush.

Oh, my, these are my Kryptonite. Fair warning to my fellow readers to watch out for the health halo effect with things like dates and oats, though. I calculated the recipe and 1/12 (one small bar) is 330 kcal!

Hi, Deb! These look tempting! I have recently decided to cut on refined flours and sugar as I have a high probability of developing diabetes type II (all women in my family have it). This recipe looks like a good one to try, but I was wondering if it was a good idea to exclude the sugar. Do you think it would work out? Thank you for your marvellous blog! For some years now, I look at it as my first online resource as a reference cookbook!

Something about a bar for breakfast does take me back to childhood. My mom thought breakfast bars were so modern (a bit like Tang, and Carnation instant breakfast drink). LOOL, now we know how bad that stuff was for us.

Hey, Just made these but had way too few crumbs. Covered the 8 X 8 pan with a super thin layer and did not have enough to cover the dates. Just kind of dotted the top. Delicious but no where near able to cut them after baking. Will eat with a spoon and try again but this time I will double the crumb recipe.

I just made these using dried cranberries with candied ginger, about 1 tablespoon. Based on a couple posts I upped the crumb by and used half coconut oil and butter. I had plenty of crumb for the bottom and top and the cranberries taste great. I also added a little vanilla. Really quick to make.

I loved loved loved the date bar mix when I was a kid; absolute favorite desert and so easy to make that I was allowed to whip it up when Mom was happy to let someone else bake something for our sweet-craving household. Cannot wait to try this recipe! I have been hankering for it for years, thanks for re-creating!!!

I made these and after eating one, I immediately ate another. Delicious crispy crust and a perfect gooey spicy date filling! I see that others have commented on the paucity of the crust, but I found that gently pressing/patting half of the crust into the pan and then doing the same for the top worked well. Thank you, Deb!

I made these today with gluten-free flour, and I used coconut oil to make them dairy-free as well. The spice level was perfection, but I had the same problem as others re: an inadequate amount of crumb. The prescribed amount was barely enough to cover the bottom of my 88. Next time I make these, I will double the crumb. Aside from that bit of trouble, these bars were wonderful!

hi deb!! I distinctly remember some thanksgiving cooking schedule/plan you posted a while ago but I cannot seem to find it anywhere. it had your whole day planned out, what dish you would start/when etc. any idea where it is on this website?

These are delicious! I pumped up the volume of the date filling by adding a few chopped dried figs and apple sweetened dried cranberries to make 2 cups. To the water I added the juice of the orange that provided the zest. Next time I will make more crust for the top and bottom. Overall love this taste of the holiday season. Thanks.

Greeting from Barcelone and Happy Thxgvn !

Im thinking about making these squares for my beloved celiac friend. Im thinking about replacing the oats for almond flower and the whole grain flour for rice flour, and follow the recipe as mentioned.

Do you think it might work.

Congrats on the new baby

and thank you for your kind work

These are my new favorite thing, but I did make a change that I like even better. The first time I made them just like the recipe. I thought the date layer was too thick in proportion to the crumb layer, so too sweet for my taste. So today I doubled the crumb mixture, kept the date mixture the same, and used a 9X9 pan. Perfect.

I used quick cooking oats as well, with coconut oil (melted via microwave) and whole wheat flour as per the recipe, and the amount of crumb was fine for my 88 pan. 1/2 for the bottom, and 1/2 sprinkled and pressed down on the top.

Growing up, my grandmother always made date squares. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about them until now. These look really delicious and have to be added to my Christmas baking list. Thank you!

Batch 1: 88 glass pyrex. Made 150% batch of crumbs after seeing early comments. Used old fashioned oats and coconut oil only, and used the mix of sugars as per the recipe. My crumb mix was more of a sludge, so I added quite a bit more flour and a little more oats to get it closer to your photo, but it was still pretty moist. Because of this, I definitely had enough crumbs for top and bottom, but the finished bars were very crumbly. But very delicious. I figured that my extra flour may have dried them out too much.

Delicious! Made these this morning to serve with a quiche. Might have one for dessert tonight with a little vanilla ice cream. Super simple to make and I would love to cut myself another HUGE piece right now. Unfortunately, just because I have created a healthy, date filled morsel, consuming the entire pan would not be a good thing. Tempting.

Love these. Parchment paper is the way to go for lining the pan and for firmly pressing down the bottom layer. We like juicing the orange after grating the zest and using it as part of the 3/4 cup liquid also.

I just put this into the oven. Smells heavenly :)

Quick question though- the amounts you suggest in the recipe barely covered my pan at all. I had to add some more oats, etc. to get it to cover the pan on the bottom and on top of the date layer. My pan is the right size (88). Why is there so little of this? Am I doing something wrong? Seems odd. Otherwise very tasty though!

Instead of dates, I used about 7 oz of dried apricots and subbed a bit or orange extract for the zest. I did not dice the apricots, but did puree them after the simmer. Since the oat mixture looked a little oily, I added a bit more flour. Since my pan was a bit dark, I baked it for 24 min at 375.

Curious as to whether this delicious-sounding recipe could stand the addition of flaxseed or flax meal. I only ask in the hope of incorporating some more fiber into a diet that will hopefully include this recipe.

These are delicious! My 2 year old and I love them. To make them healthier I subbed 2 tablespoons of maple syrup in place of all the sugar, and replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with almond flour. They are delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe deb.

The effort to delight ratio here was fantastic! Being inadvertently vegan is a nice plus. In lieu of dates, I cooked dried apricots + a splash of orange juice then blended them a bit. I used rolled oats and found it made the bars a little too crumbly. Would blend them a little the next time around. Thanks for a great treat!

I used all orange juice instead of water which gave the dates a lovely flavour. I also did 1.5 times the crust and I felt it was not enough for the 8X8 pan and hence I baked it in the 2 lbs loaf time which gave it the perfect thickness and crust to filling ratio. I baked it for a book club meeting and everyone loved it.

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