Wintery Date and Orange Bars

Wintery Date and Orange Bars
4 August 2015

It is still so cold, and while the cold weather hangs around there is not many options in the fruit department. Which is OK, because nature is quite clever gifting us vitamin C packed citrus throughout the cold and flu season.

I buy tonnes of oranges, the girls eat them like crazy, and they’re awesome to put in cakes, balls and these bars. Making slices or bars is a bit of a winter go to for me. They don’t take too much time and making two at once is like putting money in the bank. Deep winter is not a time I find hanging out in our freezer of a kitchen pleasurable. When baking, I laugh at room temperature butter instructions and I don’t even care when the milk is left on the bench, as it is usually colder there than it is in the fridge.

I ate a few of these bars with a cup of smokey tea, in my uggs, in front of the fire. I do find myself cursing winter quite regularly, but these cosy moments are pretty lovely and it will be sad, I guess, to put the uggs away for another year.

WINTERY DATE AND ORANGE BARS

WHAT YOU NEED

For the filling:

• 2 cups of dates
• 1 cup of orange juice

For the crust:

• 1½ cups of plain flour
• 1½ cups of rolled oats
• ½ teaspoon of baking powder
• zest of 1 orange
• 100 ml of honey
• 90g unsalted butter, melted

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C / 350˚F.
2. Pop the dates and oranges in a saucepan, bring to the boil, take off heat and leave to cool.
3. For the crust, put all the ingredients in a blender and mix until it’s come together, but still has some crumbliness.
4. Put half the crust mix in a slice tin lined with baking paper and press down until it is in an even layer.
5. Spread the date and oranges over the base.
6. Crumble the rest of the crust mix over the top of the filling and press down a little.
7. Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.