White Chocolate Date Bars
A few days ago my oldest niece spent the day with me and my youngest son. It is always fun having a girl around in my house full of boys. She’s so helpful and generally when she’s here we cook together. She is a little more patient with the rugrat than his older brothers are, which is fun for him. It is pretty funny to see what all he can talk her into. Cousins are the best aren’t they?
A while back I was doing my normal hurry up shopping in Sam’s and picked up some fruit. In my mind I was excited to find fresh figs, because I have never had them. Like I said I was in a hurry. When I got home and was putting everything away, I looked at the package and they were actually fresh Medjool dates. I felt pretty dumb as I stuck them in the refrigerator. I just left the dates there, maybe pouting at my own lack of attention. With my niece over I laid all of that aside and thought we could make something different, something she had never tried before. I gave her a bite of the dates as I was chopping. I think she was skeptical at best of this sticky sweet fruit. I told her how much I loved the bakery date bars when I was growing up. I’ve never had any that I liked as well. We threw in some oats, cinnamon and white chocolate chips and the results were a moist and tender bar with such great flavors we all loved them, really loved them.
When she was ready to leave that evening she took some of the fresh dates and the recipe to make at home. I love spending time with her in the kitchen and showing her how easy cooking can be. She calls me every once in a while to tell me about the meals she’s made for here family, sometimes using my recipes, which makes my day.
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White Chocolate Date Bars
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup chopped fresh Medjool dates
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Cooking Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, add melted butter, sugar and egg, stir together. Stir in vanilla. Add flour, oats, salt and baking soda and combine. Fold in dates and white chocolate chips.
Pour into a greased 8 x 11 1/2 inch glass baking dish, spreading evenly.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until edges are crisp and bars are golden brown.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cut bars in pan or remove to a cutting board to slice.
