OMG this is freaking good. But only if you like simple recipes and love dates and crunchy nuts because it is chock FULL of em. I happen to be a massive fan of them (as per my previous posts have shown), so I, of course, jumped on making these bars. Its not the usual no bake date bars that we have all made in the past. No. These are baked but not cakey or anything. Its kind of just a filler between the dates and nuts. This bar is perfect with tea or coffee or an after dinner snack. What I do, pretty much every night, after dinner, I like to have a healthy ‘sweet’ snack. Just a bite or two of something. But it has to be sugar free. Naturally sweetened. So if it’s not a baked good of mine, I do a fruit. And then, before bed, I like to snack on a handful of almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. Great for digestion, if you get my drift. Anyway, these bars take care of my cravings at night. Hope they do the same for yours!
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup coconut sugar
- 3/4 cup oat flour*
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 9 oz dates (1.5 cups packed & pitted)
- 1 cup walnuts, toasted & chopped
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 tbs unsweetened applesauce**
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8×8″ brownie pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Next, stir in the dates, walnuts, eggs and applesauce. Transfer lumpy mixture to prepared pan and spread out evenly. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan at least 20 minutes prior to removing and slicing. This cake has to set.
Yields 16 bars.
…delicious happens
*You can pulse some oats in your food processor to get the oat flour. Or you can just simply use all purpose flour in place of the oat flour.
**You can substitute in melted coconut oil or butter for the applesauce.
Also, any nuts will work here, pecans, etc.
