Fig bars, remember those? I don’t think I’ve had one in 5 years, but a few weekends ago I had a craving. Fig Newtons were one of the only packaged sweets I could convince my parents to keep around in the kitchen cabinets for after-school noshing. With a box of fresh dates instead of figs, I sought to recreate a bar with a delicious date filling and almond flavor.
This bar is what dreams are made of (hey now, hey now). I replaced the cakey dryness of a typical newton with an oatmeal crust. The dates are ridiculously sweet without any added sugar. Really, what is stopping you from making these right now? Go buy some dates and get cookin.
Almond Date Bars (makes 9 large or 12 medium bars)
- Date paste: 12 oz medjool dates (about 20 dates), 1 c water, 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 and 1/2 c rolled oats
- 1 and 1/2 c flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 c packed brown sugar
- 1/2 c butter
- 1/4 and 1 tbsp of olive oil
- Add to topping: 1 tbsp slivered almonds and 1/2 tsp almond extract
Preheat the oven to 350. Remove the pits from your dates and slice them in half. Cook dates, almond extract, and water for 10 minutes on medium heat and then blend the mixture into a paste using an immersion blender or food processor. While the dates are cooking, combine oats, flour, brown sugar, butter, olive oil and salt to form the crust.
Pack a little over half of this dry mixture into the bottom of a greased 8×8 pan. Prebake the crust for 5 minutes and then spread the date paste on top of the crust.
Add slivered almonds and the extra almond extract to the additional dry mixture and crumble it on top of the date paste, pressing down gently. Bake the bars for 20 minutes at 350 degrees and let them cool before cutting into almond date squares.
What was your favorite packaged treat as a child?
Marisa
eatgreatbegreat says
I’m totally making these! They sound amazing and look delish!
uprootfromoregon says
Thanks! Enjoy them!