One thing my family likes is date squares. It is a nice desert or an afternoon snack that doesn’t take long to make but has to be made in advance for cooling time.
I was surprised to see that when I when you cooked them, they were not as sweet as they were when raw, so I had to add a bit of sugar, probably because there is water added to them, but it still contains a lot of sugar. For a change today, I made it gluten free to give it a try, and it turned out very well. I also substituted a part of the oat flakes by quinoa flakes. It adds a special flavour to it. Very interesting.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time : 60 minutes
Cooling time: 2 hrs
- 2 1/2 cups (625ml) of organic Mejdool dates
- 1 cup (250ml) of water
- 1 tbsp. (15ml) of organic whole brown sugar
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1 1/4 (312ml) of organic oatmeal
- 1/2 cup (125ml) of quinoa flakes
- 3/4 cup (187.5ml) of organic brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup (62.5ml) of organic tapioca starch
- 1/2 cup (125ml) of finely chopped organic walnuts
- 1/4 tsp. (1.25ml) of baking powder
- 3/4 cup (187.5ml) of vegan butter
- Preheat your oven to 350º.
- In a small pot, put the pitted and chopped dates and cook for about 5 minutes or until it turn into puree, then let them cool.
- In a small bowl, combine the oatmeal, the quinoa flakes, the rice flour, the tapioca starch, the walnuts and the baking powder.
- Add the butter to the oat mix. If you have a little mixer, it can be a bit easier.
- Take an 8″x8″ oven square dish and line it with parchment paper, it is very sticky and can be hard to remove.
- Put half of the oatmeal mix at the bottom and press firmly to make it even.
- Then add the date mix and spread evenly.
- Finish with the balance of the oatmeal mix.
- Put it in the oven for 55 minutes.
- When you take it out of the oven, let it cool for at least 2 hrs before you remove it from it’s dish or else nothing will hold together.