Date night on the Homestead!

Today on Homestead Homebodies it's Date Night....so.....we're going to make some Date Squares!

Our recipe uses 16 ounces of dates, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 cup of water, 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1-1/2 cups of butter, 2 cups of brown sugar and 2 cups of oats.

We start by cutting the dates into smaller pieces to be sure there are no pits in our mixture.

Once that is done we combine the Dates, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and the water into a saucepan. We bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and cook, stirring often until the dates are soft and can be mashed with a fork. Set the mixture aside.

In a large bowl blend the flour, baking soda and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the brown sugar and oats. Do not over mix. Your mixture should stay crumbly!

Next we butter our baking dish and press in half of the crumb mixture. Then we gently spread our date mixture over the bottom crust. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the date filling and press it down with your hand.
Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool completely, cut into squares and enjoy!