Last week I posted some healthy dessert recipes and I had my eye on a couple to try myself. I decided to start with the Sunny Oat-Date Bars. I just happened to have a HUGE bag of dates sitting on my counter that I had been meaning to make into a dessert but had never taken the time to find a recipe. These bars were the perfect thing to use them in!
I made some minor adjustments to the recipe and overall the results were delicious. They turned out a teensy bit crumbly so I’d recommend eating them with a fork. And after I simmered the dates and orange juice, I had no liquid left over to add to the dry ingredients, it just turned into a very thick mixture. So even though I didn’t have any of the orange/date liquid to add to the oats, it still worked fine. I absolutely LOVED this recipe and found I could hardly stay out of the bars. The flavors of orange, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and dates was ah-mazing. Pretty sure a healthy recipe becomes not so healthy when you eat 2-3 times more than you should! Oh well.
Enjoy!
- 2 c. Very Finely Chopped and Pitted Dates
- 1 c. Fresh Orange Juice (I used fresh-squeezed)
- 2 t. Grated Orange Rind
- 2 c. Thick Rolled Oats
- ½ c. White Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 t. Baking Powder
- ¼ t. Baking Soda
- ½ t. Salt
- 1 t. Cinnamon
- ⅛ t. Nutmeg
- ¼ t. Cloves
- ⅓ c., plus 1 T. Safflower Oil
- ⅓ c. Honey
- 3 T. Pure Grade A Maple Syrup
- 1½ t. Pure Vanilla Extract
- ¼ c. Pecans, coarsely chopped
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x9 pan with cooking spray.
- In a small saucepan, combine the dates, orange juice and orange rind. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occassionally, until dates are very soft and the mixture has turned very thick (about 5-8 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Once cool, mash until smooth.
- In a large bowl, whisk together oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In a small bowl, whisk together oil, honey, maple syrup and vanilla. Add oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Press ⅔ of the oat mixture into the pan and spread the date mixture over the crust. Stir pecans into remaining oat mixture and drop by spoonfulls onto the date mixture and spread evenly.
- Bake 30 minutes or until lightly browned.
