Description
The wonderful flakey oat crust is what "makes" these bars, if you want a really smooth date filling mixture then cool slightly and puree on the food processor:)
Ingredients
- Yellow Cake Mix
- Quick-cooking Oatmeal
- Brown Sugar
- Cinnamon
- Butter
- Lemon Juice
- Egg
- Vanilla
- Pitted Dates
- White Sugar
- Water
- Orange Juice
- Maple Extract
Instructions
- Set oven to 350 degrees
- Butter a 13 x 9-inch baking dish
- For the date filling
- In a saucepan combine chopped dates, sugar, water and orange juice, bring to a boil and cook, stirring with wooden spoon over medium-low heat until mixture is thickened, pushing down with a fork or a potato masher to remove the large chunks and make the mixture semi-smooth, cooking time should take about 15-20 minutes)set aside
- For the crust
- In a large bowl combine the cake mix with oatmeal, cinnamon and brown sugar
- In a small bowl whisk together melted butter with egg and vanilla
- Add to the flour mixture
- Using clean hands mix with fingers until the mixture barely holds together
- Measure out two-thirds of the mixture and pat into the bottom of prepared baking dish, pressing down with hands to cover evenly
- Carefully spread the prepared date mixture over the bottom crust, spreading out to cover the pan
- Cover the top with remaining oat mixture and gently pat the mixture down slightly with hands
- Bake for about 20 minutes
- Cool completely or semi-freeze before cutting