Your visitors won’t suspect that the sauerkraut in this chocolate cake’s fluffy, creamy frosting adds extra taste.
| Prep Time: | 25 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 50 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 squares |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats
- 1 ½ cups sifted pastry flour
- 1 ⅓ cups packed brown sugar, divided
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- ¾ pound pitted dates, diced
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Combine oats, pastry flour, 1 cup brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Mix in butter until crumbly. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan.
- Combine dates, water, and remaining 1/3 cup brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and cook until thickened. Stir in lemon juice, and remove from heat. Spread the filling over the base, and spread the remaining crumb mixture on top.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the top is lightly toasted, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool before cutting into 12 squares.
- You can use almond extract instead of lemon, if you wish.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 363 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 64 g |
| Cholesterol | 31 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 217 mg |
| Sugars | 42 g |
| Fat | 13 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Very good.
Delicious! I had only 9.5 ounces of dates and slightly under the brown sugar amount (so I put less in the date mixture). Turned out great. My husband is on a low sodium meal plan and he was able to eat these too. Win, win.
I make these squares often…every Christmas platter or work pot luck that comes along. People ALWAYS ask me for the recipe, and ask me specifically to bring these to events. The most delicious date squares. I always add vanilla to the date mixture as well as lemon juice. I’ve also used lime juice in a pinch, just as tasty.
Wonderful!! I added a bit of freshly ground nutmeg but that was the only change. They freeze really well, too. Thanks for the recipe!
The taste is great I ,add a double batch and used 2 8by12 inch pans! I did a more date filling as well. But they are awesome!
Awesome and super delicious! I modified a bit: – added vanilla extract while the dates were reducing – added molasses to the oat crumble for some extra richness Oh. My. Addicted. This is officially the beginning of a problem I’ll need to address in a while when my pants no longer fit. So delicious.
This recipe is a keeper. My first time making date squares. I use only 1/3 cup Splenda blend (not 1 1/3 cup, as too sweet for us old folks ) and I only had a cup of flour left so I made up the half cup with oats in the blender.
Great recipe to adjust to your own liking. As it is, there’s waaay too much crumble (easily use half for 9″) and I prefer adding pure vanilla extract instead of lemon. I also like a firmer base so I bake it for about 7 minutes before adding the filling and topping. Delicious!
Can’t really rate this recipe as a ran out of flour and substituted 3/4 of the flour required with pancake mix. Maybe if I would have left out the soda (as pancake mix probably has soda in it) it would have been a little more controllable. At 1 point I was going to send my brother to get 2 hockey sticks to beat it back down into the 9×9 pan. It turned out very tasty with 45 mins of cook time. 20 mins on the bottom layer before adding dates, 25 mins at 350 and an extra 10 mins at 325. Yes it turned out OK! Ya know I maybe on to something here. Steve, The Saturday Nite Chef Ps. The wife is out for the evening with the girls so we won’t mention anything now will we…
This recipe was perfect. I did use 3 cups of dates because I like lots of dates in my date squares. Delicious. 5 stars
i made the recipe exactly as it is, found it delicious
This is very close to my mom’s recipe. The only difference is she only used 1/2 cup butter instead of the 3/4 cup. Love this !
Love these frozen….the crumble amount…Just Right…yummmm
I have been craving date squares and am so happy I made them with this recipe. I did run the chopped date/water mix in the moulinex to get more of a thick jam texture. Taste is 5 star, and easy to make. Next time I will cook less as I found the crumble a little hard on top, but base stayed solidly together!. day 2 will soften the top.
This is an easy recipe no matter what level of cooking/baking experience you have. These squares are a nice simple dessert just on their own or as finger food for family or group of friends at a function or at the office for a much needed break.
My food scale needed fresh batteries, so I could not weigh my dates. I searched online and found .75 pounds = 3 cups. I believe when a recipe is made, it should have all ingredients in the same measure.
I have made this scrummy recipe several times. It tastes just like the one my mom made when I was growing up. I was so sad when I lost the original recipe but happy when I found this one for date squares. We used to call it Matrimonial Squares.
Just yum. I added some cinnamon and cloves to spice it up. I am so glad I did
I was short about 4oz of dates so I substituted some raisins and dried cranberries. Fantastic! I will definitely be making these again.
Rave reviews on this. I followed the recipe as is and it turned out fantastic.
The baking soda and salt should be decreased.