The Amazon took me to the Loblaws this afternoon. In one of my favourite aisles, the one where they keep the giant cans of tomatoes and the big bags of walnuts, they also keep big bags of pitted dates. An urge suddenly came over to me to make date squares.
This is remarkable for a number of reasons:
- I don't bake (unless you count lasagna);
- I've never made date squares or any other kind of dessert square (unless you count the brownies I whipped up last summer from a box of Betty Crocker mix);
- I've a long list of things to do today that does not include making a dessert, but does include "lose weight"; and
- With today's heat, I'd planned supper based on not using the oven or stove.
But something told me to make date squares, so I bought two bags of pitted dates and a bag of rolled oats.
Back at the cave, I looked in my first reference when I'm learning something new in the kitchen. Rombauer and Rombauer-Becker's Joy of Cooking (the 1975 edition). I was non-plussed to discover they don't have a proper date square recipe, only something called Date Bar Cockaigne, which looked to be a poor substitute and required pecans.
I tried another cookbook with no luck and then went to the internet.
The first recipe called for shortening. Having none, I went to the second recipe. It turned out to be from Diana Rattray! Our dear friend Agatha tells us that this Rattray woman ran off with Aggie's first husband and her lemon square recipe!
Could it be that if I used this recipe, I'd be getting something that came from Aggie's great-great-grandmother? Worth trying, I said to myself.
So I mixed it up, following the recipe closely, except, maybe a third more dates than called for. For me, a date square should have a lot of dates. Also, instead of "chopping" the dates, I used my blender.
But it came out okay. Here's a picture of the date mixture going on top of the bottom layer of oats, flour, etc.
Follow-up News
- The blender caused no harm, the dates were really smooth (except for the unpitted pit in one.)
- Next time, I'll use more margarine for the crust, (and perhaps try butter - it's hard to believe Aggie's great-great grandmother used margarine, and I bet she wouldn't have skimped.)
- I gave six of the squares to the gardening gnome in the hut next door. "Dwarfie," she cried, "how did you know date squares are my favourite thing!" (She's done wonders for the flowers around here, I owe her.)
1 comment:
Dwarf, you should be aware, too, of ancient coyote lore stating that for some obscure reason the Rombauers et. al. seem to label every damn thing even remotely like 'cake' as 'cockaigne'. It certainly gets on our nerves, but us coyotes are clueless as to why. We, after all, eat most of our meals raw. But we like reading cookbooks.
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