Date Slices

5 from 1 vote

Date slices combine oats and cornflakes with a sticky date centre. They are easy to make, rustic and highly delicious. These oat and date bars make a great alternative to flapjack.

Prep Time15

Cook Time30

Total Time45

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: British

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 406kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Equipment

1 xx 20cm (8-inch) square baking tin

Ingredients

For the sticky date layer

250 g Block dates stoned
100 ml Water
30 g Light brown sugar

For the oat and cornflake layers

250 g Butter
125 g Golden syrup
75 g Caster sugar
200 g Rolled oats small porridge oats
125 g Cornflakes
100 g Plain flour all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon Salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180℃/ 350℉ and grease & line a 20cm (8-inch) square baking tin.
Put the water and soft brown sugar into a pan and heat to dissolve.
Chop the dates finely, tip into the pan and leave to soak, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile melt the butter, caster sugar and golden syrup in a pan, stirring often until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes together.
Crush the cornflakes using your hands.
Mix the cornflakes, oats, flour, salt, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Tip the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.
Spoon just under half of the mixture into the prepared baking tin and press it down using the back of a metal spoon.
Stir the dates. They should be very soft by now. Spread them over the layer of oat and cornflake mixture, almost to the edge.
Top with the remaining oat and cornflake mixture and again, spread it out, pressing down with the back of a spoon, covering the dates completely.
Bake for around 30 minutes, until golden.
When the traybake is completely cold cut it into 12 slices (or 16 smaller squares).

Notes

Use the correct size tin for the recipe. If you use a larger tin you will struggle to spread the oat and cornflake mixture out with enough depth and the risk is that the date bars fall apart. A smaller tin would yield thicker slices and may take longer to cook.
Chop the dates finely. If you leave them chunky then they will be harder to spread.
Crushing the cornflakes helps to ensure that the bars hold together rather than breaking up too much when cut (a little crumbling is to be expected though).
Do not cut this traybake until it has cooled completely.
Storing bakes like this in a large glass jar with a clip-top lid (like a Kilne r jar) helps to keep them exceedingly fresh. When stored this way, these oat and date slices will stay fresh for up to 5 days. If you do not have such a jar it is worth wrapping the bars in foil before storing in an alternative airtight container.
These sticky date bars can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Just let them thaw for several hours on the countertop when required.
Try mixing nuts, seeds or desiccated coconut into the oat & cornflake mixture.

Nutrition