Two Birds in a Shot!! Date Bars with Cornflakes!

I did! I just caught two birds in a shot. : ) The birds are

1) AFAM Dates hosted by lovely Chandrika of Akshayapatra. AFAM(A Fruit A Month) event was started by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual.

2) WBB#17-Corn Flakes hosted by cute Nags of For The Cook In Me. WBB(Weekend Breakfast Blogging) is the brainchild of Nandita of Saffron Trail.

And the bullet I used was….

Date Bars! Date bars are usually baked with flour based, crunchy/crumbly outer layers with a yummy and gooey date filling in the middle. I sneaked in some crumbled corn flakes in the dough to make the bullet strong enough to catch two birds.

To make the date filling:

Heat up 1 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Add 1 cup of chopped dates and simmer. The dates will become soft within a couple of minutes. Be careful as it easily stick to the pan. Start mashing with a wooden spoon until it becomes a paste. Turn off the stove, transfer the date paste to a clean bowl, and let it cool.

For the outer layers, you will need:

Butter – ¼ cup at room temperature

Flour – ¾ cup

Corn Flakes – ½ cup, crumbled

Brown Sugar – 1/8 cup

Salt – a pinch

Cinnamon – ¼ tsp, optional

Baking Powder – ½ tsp

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Combine flour and all other ingredients except corn flakes together. Add corn flakes and knead well. I added a couple of teaspoons of milk to get the right consistency. It was similar to a pie crust dough, and I was able to roll it with a rolling pin. Roll the dough into two rectangles. Place one on the bottom of a greased rectangular baking pan. Spread the date filling evenly on top, and cover with the second layer of rolled out dough.

If you don’t want to add milk, you might not get the dough into a rolling consistency. In that case, press half of the dough onto a greased rectangular baking pan. Spread the date filling evenly. Now spread the rest of the flour mix evenly on top.

Using a sharp knife, make cuts into desired shapes.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Let it cool down for about 30 minutes or so before separating the pieces.

You may add more sugar in the dough. I thought the date filling would be sweet enough. But the outer layers weren’t that sweet, but perfect for the breakfast with a cup of tea.