The topping was hard to cut, so I sort of hacked them up. Do any of you know a solution for that?
As Made by Margaret “Peggy” Flaherty Keegan, 1921-1966
A couple of weeks ago, the winners of the Historic Deerfield King Arthur Baking Competition were announced and I am proud to say I was one of them. I am in the process of posting the winning recipes and this is the second of three (the first was my very own Candy Cane Cookies).
Barbara Keegan’s date bars won the prize for Most Creative Recipe. I had the opportunity to taste them at the judging and I was in complete ecstasy. These are beyond good- they are amazing!
Barbara Keegan’s Date Bars
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups chopped pitted dates (I prefer Med-jool dates if available)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
`1 ½ cups King Arthur flour
1 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
1 cup old fashioned oats
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, diced, room temperature (I ended up adding another 1/4 cup of butter to mine because I needed it to make the dough.)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. (You might want to wait on this until after you cool the date filling.)
Butter 8×8 baking pan and bring 1 ½ cups of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan and add dates.
Simmer until soft and thick, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Stir in vanilla.
Combine flour, sugar, oats, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and stir to blend.
Add butter.
With fingers pressed until clumps form, press half of the oat mixture on bottom of pan. Spread date mixture over.
Sprinkle remaining oat mixture and press gently.
Bake until brown at edges and golden brown in the center for about 40 minutes.
Cool completely and cut into bars.
Mine came out a little bit gooey, so, for appearances sake, I might cut down on the amount of date mixture next time.
Makes about 16 bars.
For printing:
Barbara Keegan’s Date Bars
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups chopped pitted dates (I prefer Med-jool dates if available)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
`1 ½ cups King Arthur flour
1 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
1 cup old fashioned oats
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, diced, room temperature (I ended up adding another 1/4 cup of butter to mine because I needed it to make the dough)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. (You might want to wait on this until after you cool the date filling)
Butter 8×8 baking pan and bring 1 ½ cups of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan and add dates.
Simmer until soft and thick, stirring occasionally for 10-15 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
Stir in vanilla.
Combine flour, sugar, oats, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and stir to blend.
Add butter.
With fingers pressed until clumps form, press half of the oat mixture on bottom of pan. Spread date mixture over.
Sprinkle remaining oat mixture and press gently.
Bake until brown at edges and golden brown in the center for about 40 minutes.
Cool completely and cut into bars.
Makes about 16 bars.
