DATE OATMEAL BARS

With the perfect balance of sweet and salty, these Date Oatmeal Bars offer a decadent bite of nostalgia with no gluten! The date layer produces subtle notes of soft caramel which blends with the rich buttery dough with the perfect amount of salt to create a shortbread style bar that is truly mouthwatering. Be sure to use only certified gluten-free rolled oats (quick-cooking is fine as well), coarse-chopped in a blender to allow the dough to bind cohesively with our GF AP Flour Blend. These bars will keep for a week (if they aren't devoured before then), in an airtight container in the fridge or several months in the freezer to enjoy with a cup of afternoon tea or coffee and a good friend (or alone with your thoughts on how gluten-free can taste this extraordinary!). Big thanks to @glutenfreeeats for the inspiration for this recipe.

Makes one 9x9 or 8x11 pan

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups (13.5 ounces/375 grams) pitted Dates (I used both Medjool and Deglet Noor varieties with similar results)
• 3/4-1 cup Water
• 1 cup (8 ounces/150 grams) unsalted Butter (2 sticks), softened
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup (60 grams) White or Cane Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 1/2 cups (5 ounces/140 grams) GF Rolled Oats, coarse ground in a dry blender. (Do not grind to a powder, just quickly pulse the oats to break them up into smaller pieces)
• 1 1/4 cups (5.3 ounces/150 grams) Éban's GF AP Flour Blend
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Rough chop the dates and add to a saucepan with 3/4 cup water on medium-low heat and cook to soften the dates, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Mash the dates with the back of the spoon as they soften into a smooth paste. Add more water if the mixture gets dry and starts to stick to the pan. Once the dates are a smooth paste, remove from heat and allow to cool while preparing the shortbread dough.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, both sugars and the vanilla until the mixture is light and fluffy (about 7-8 minutes with an electric mixer).
3. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients together and stir to mix well.
4. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the creamed butter/sugar mixture and stir with wooden spoon until well incorporated and a stiff dough forms.
5. In a greased 9x9 or 8x11 baking dish, press 2/3 of the dough lightly into the bottom of the pan, reserving 1/3 of the dough for the top.
6. Next add all the date paste and spread evenly over the dough in the dish.
7. Using a small spoon, top the date layer with dollops of the remaining dough to mostly cover the dates. Leaving areas of the dates exposed is fine as it creates a cobbled effect once it bakes.
8. Bake at 350 degrees 25-35 minutes until dough is golden brown, slightly puffed and set.
9. Allow the bars to cool completely before slicing into bars, at least 30 minutes or longer.