Food for the Gods

This weekend I decided I would make food for the gods. This is a recipe that I remember from when I was very small. My mum always used to make it when she had dinner parties as one of a choice of things for deserts, and I always used to hope that no one would choose it so there would be some left over. I reached for my trusty creche cookery book, a magical book that contains recipes from my childhood, but you will not find on any bookshelf store, and tragedy it was not there. I searched my extensive row of cookbooks and still could not find it. As a last resort I searched online and found a recipe for them.

In case you are wondering these are date and walnut bars. They are chewy and lovely and very moreish. Luckily these were nearly as nice as I remembered and my son agreed with me. I am sure they contain about a zillion calories though so I will only be making them as a special treat. In case you want to give it a try, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup of plain flour
• Quarter teaspooon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 cup of chopped dates
• 1 cup of melted butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• two thirds of a cup of white sugar
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 35oF, 175 C
2. Line a rectangular baking tray with paper
3. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl
4. Put the melted butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla essence into another bowl and mix.
5. Add the honey to the mixture
6. Fold in the flour, then add the dates and walnuts
7. Bake in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes. A skewer should come out clean when inserted but it should still be chewy in the centre.

I am lucky enough to have a set of American cups for baking. If anyone knows a recipe with grams or ounces that would be great and I would love to know it. In case you are wondering a cup of melted butter worked out at about half a bar of normal sized butter, I did wonder how to measure it before melting.  In the end I used trial and error.

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