Lemon Date Bars

Serves : 16

Comments: This recipe comes from the "Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home" cookbook. Everybody loves these.

 

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups chopped pitted dates
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup rolled oats

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease an 8 or 9 inch square baking pan.

In a saucepan, combine the dates, lemon juice, and water. Cook, covered, on low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and set aside.

In a bowl, cream together the margarine or butter and brown sugar. Stir in the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the oats and mix well, using your hands. Alternately, if you have a food processor, you can just combine all the ingredients together in the food processor and pulse until mixed. In both cases, the dough will be crumbly but will hold together when squeezed.

Press two-thirds of the dough into the baking pan. Stir the date mixture and spread it over the dough. Crumble the remaining dough on top. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool in the pan.

Nutritional Information:
192 calories; 2.2g protein; 6.2g fat; 33.6g carbohydrate, 216mg sodium, 16mg cholesterol.