Almond and Date Pie Bars

Man what a visual let down after that beautiful TWD cake! Don't worry though, what this poor bar lacks in style, it makes up for in taste! I got this recipe from Paula Deen's Holiday Baking magazine which my darling Tweetie bought me. I can't say that I love Paula's show- but her recipes are usually very tasty. She calls these bars "Date and Mixed Nuts Bars" but I subbed in almonds for mixed nuts because lets face it almonds are the queen of nuts- don't you think? And as you already know I'm drawn to all recipes having to do with dates (because of a perhaps over-zealous chopped date purchase I made a few weeks ago).

Since last night was the first night we were able to cut off the air conditioner and open the windows, I feel like Fall has arrived. These bars really taste like Fall. They start of with a thin shortbread crust and are topped with a pecan pie textured mixture of almonds, dates, karo syrup, brown sugar- well I'll just type the recipe out:

Almond and Date Pie Bars or Date and Mixed Nuts Bars
2 cups ap flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups butter, dived
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
8 oz. chopped dates
11.5 oz. unsalted mixed nuts, chopped (I used almonds)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 13x9 inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray (I believe in liberal greasing so I slathered some Crisco on mine). In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in 3/4 cup butter until mixture is crumbly. Press mixture evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until lightly browned (mine went for about 20 min and it never got brown).


In a small bowl, place remaining 1/2 cup butter. Microwave on High for 30 seconds, or until melted. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, corn syrup, and eggs. Add melted butter, stirring to combine. ( Ok so ground my almonds by hand- and let me tell ya- that was my daily upper body workout- fo' real- this nut mill is from the 70's).



Stir in dates, nuts, and vanilla. Pour mixture evenly over baked crust.


Bake for 33 to 35 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

My idea of a perfect date...square

Last Saturday I woke up late.


Just kidding, I haven't slept in for the last seven months.

But seriously, I did at least stay in my pajamas late, even if Helen Mae and I were not sleeping. So here we were in our pajamas at about 11am- I was looking through cookbooks and Helen Mae was chewing on a spatula.


Like I mentioned earlier I have a giant tub of chopped dates and now I'm looking everywhere for date recipes- so when I stumbled upon this lovely recipe from Cookies, irresistible biscuits, brownies, and bars by Hilaire Walden I decided to fumble through the kitchen and see if I could make it without having to change into real clothes and go to the grocery store. The recipe is called Date Crunch- but it honestly was not crunchy in any way- I would have called it Date Chew- but let's face it- that would be a very odd name and also not so appealing- so I'm calling them Chewy Chocolate Topped Date Bars. They were oh so easy to make and I had all of the ingredients in the house (except raisins-the ones in my pantry had expired in 2006). The bars were really good- they had a very clear date flavor that went really well with the semi-sweet chocolate (umm, what doesn't go well with chocolate?). Here is the recipe with my changes in parentheses:

Date Crunch (Chewy Chocolate Topped Date Bars)

8 oz package of graham crackers (I used graham cracker crumbs because that was all I had in the house- but I think crushing your own graham crackers might allow you to how a "crunchier" Date Crunch so I will use whole crackers next time and crush them myself)
1/3 cup butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup pitted dates, finely chopped (I use a little over a whole cup since I omitted the raisins)
3 oz golden raisins (I omitted these because I didn't have any- but I think they would really taste great in these bars)
5 oz milk or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used semisweet chocolate chips- and just between you and me, I used quite a bit more than 5 oz)

Line a 7 inch square shallow cake pan with foil. Put the crackers in a plastic bag and crush coarsely with a rolling pin. Gently heat the butter and syrup in a small saucepan until the butter has melted. Stir in the crushed crackers, the dates and golden raisins and mix well. Spoon into the prepared pan, press flat with the back of a spoon and chill for 1 hour (I really pressed these down firmly and I left them in the fridge for about 2 hours).


Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, over a saucepan of hot water, stirring until smooth (I melted the chocolate chips in the microwave on low). Spoon over the cookie mixture, spreading evenly with a spatula. Chill until set (I let mine sit in the fridge for about an hour). Lift the foil out of the cake pan and peel away. Cut the crunch into 24 pieces and arrange on a plate (you can arrange them in a ridiculous tower if you want to).

Apple and Date Wondermuffins

Today is my little sister's 17th birthday- so Happy Birthday Madeline! She was hoping for a car but instead she got these glorious apple and date muffins! I think I really one up-ed her expectations- and you will think so too when try these out. Seriously, I did not know how high to set my expectations for these muffins because they call for whole wheat flour and only 2 tablespoons of butter... and well... that sounded sort like a healthy muffin. But have no fear! These muffins are really really wonderful.

I found them in a giant cookbook called, Cookies, irresistible biscuits, brownies, and bars by Hilaire Walden. Now this book has yet to give me a bad recipe (honestly- everyone should go out and buy it) , in fact, it holds my all-time favorite snickerdoodle recipe, my mom's go-to decadent fudge brownie recipe, and a really fancy white chocolate macadamia nut chocolate chip torte (that is a perfect party pleaser). SO... I felt pretty confident that even this seemingly health conscious muffin would be somewhere between OK and good. Well, it blew me away. The cinnamon and apple really shine through and make it a good Autumn morning breakfast treat. It is sweet without being the least bit "sugary" and it is dense without being at all "buttery"- and it was easy to make too!

So without further ado- here is the recipe with a few changes I made in parentheses:

Date and Apple (Wonder)Muffins

1 1/4 cups self-rising whole wheat flour (I couldn't find self-rising whole wheat so I added 1 1/4 tsp baking powder and 1/8 tsp salt to regular whole wheat flour)
1 1/4 cups self-rising white flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used a very generous teaspoon)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons margarine (I used butter)
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 eating apple ( I used a large, firm Golden Delicious apple and it worked beautifully)
1 cup apple juice
2 tablespoons pear and apple spread (I actually used an organic morello cherry fruit spread)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 tablespoon chopped pecans (I used slivered almonds on half and left the other half plain)

Preheat the oven to 400F. Arrange 12 paper liners in a deep muffin pan (I found that because my muffin pan is not very deep, I got about four extra muffins out of the batch). Put the whole wheat flour in a mixing bowl. Sift in the white flour with the cinnamon and baking powder. Rub in the margarine until the mixture resembles bread crumbs, then stir in the brown sugar (I used my hand pastry blender to mix in the butter, just because its not as messy, and I love my pastry blender).

Quarter and core the apple, chop the flesh finely and set aside (now the recipe did not specify as to whether you are supposed to peel the apple- I did because thought the skin my get a bit chewy or rough). Stir a little of the apple juice with the fruit spread until smooth. Mix in the remaining juice, then add to the rubbed-in mixture with the beaten egg. Add the chopped apple to the bowl with the dates. Mix quickly until just combined.


Divide the mixture among the muffin liners. Sprinkle the chopped pecans. Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes (20 minutes did it for mine), until-golden brown and firm in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack and serve while still warm (they are really good warm and room temp. too).


And Helen Mae loved them too! Just kidding, I'm not a psycho mom- she's still sticking to the baby food

I have a huge tub full of chopped dates from Sam's Club, so expect to see more date recipes in the near future...