Dates and Butter Dessert Bar

When I saw this, I knew I had to make it. I mean, look at all that butter. And dates. Dates are meant to be baked. Oh and also to be pitted and the seed replaced with a whole cashewnut before eating. These are the only two ways dates are meant to be used, really.

I did some adjustments to the quantity of ingredients based on my taste. I also think I under-cooked the bar but that's fine. One can always increase the baking time by 5-10 next time, no reason to hate the recipe for that.

Here's what we need.

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped into small pieces
2 cups all purpose flour / maida
1.5 cups butter at room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (or just use white sugar again in case you don't have this)
4 eggs
1 cup chopped nuts of your choice (I used walnuts and about 2-3 tbsp of cashew nuts that I happened to have)
½ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Here's how to make the bars:

1. Melt butter in a pan over very low heat or in the microwave, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

2. Chop up the dates and nuts and set aside.

3. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add about 1/4 cup of this into the chopped dates and nuts mixture and mix (dredge) well to coat the sticky parts of the dates. Set aside.

4. Mix butter and sugar and beat lightly for 2 mins until well incorporated. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating. Finally add the vanilla extract and mix well.

5. Fold in the flour-salt-baking powder mixture to the above gently until just mixed and no lumps remain. Then add the dredged dates and flour mixture continuing to fold in gently. This will form a thick batter.

6. Pour into a greased cake or brownie pan and bake in a preheated oven at 350F/180C for 35-40 mins. The original recipe says 30 mins but mine were a bit under-baked so adjust according to your oven.

Cut and serve warm with ice cream for an indulgent treat. I stored mine in the refrigerator for 4 days.

Here's an example of a pic where the white balance is all off :D

Tribute-to-Katherine-Hepburn Brownies Recipe

I am going to pretend I am posting a step by step brownie recipe as my first recipe this year not because I am out of anything else to post, but because its auspicious to start with sweet stuff. You play along, ok?

I am going to be honest with you and admit these brownies are not going to cooperate if you have weight loss resolutions. What they will do is transport you to chocolate heaven and back with each bite, this I promise.

Here's a sneak preview of the final product.

Now, let's get started with 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. I use Cadbury's which I brought from India. I am weird that way. I take back Hershey's for my relatives and bring back Cadbury's cocoa powder.

I can't find the picture of the butter I took so imagine 1/2 cup butter here. At room temperature please.

Now, to get what you see below, bring a pan of water to boil, place another heat proof bowl in it and add the butter. When it melts, add the cocoa powder and 1 tsp instant coffee powder. Don't worry, your brownies won't taste like coffee, its just to enhance the chocolate flavour.

Set aside to cool.

This recipe is very chocolate-y and uses very little flour. All we need is 1/4 cup all purpose flour or maida. Yep, that's it.

Add 1/2 tsp salt to this and mix well in a bowl. You can add a pinch of powdered cinnamon to this if you wish (I didn't).

Once the chocolate-butter mixture has slightly cooled, add 2 eggs, mixing well for a minute after each addition.

Now its time for the sugah. Throw in one cup after you are done with the eggs but please don't be like me - use white sugar. Add add 1 tsp vanilla extract to this.

Mix mix mix until well incorporated. Be gentle, don't over do it.

Now add the flour and fold in until just blended.

Now come the good stuff (not that anything we added so far is not good, but still).

We need 1/2 cup (4oz) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces and 1/2 cup walnuts. I am not a huge fan of walnuts so I added lesser than what the recipe calls for. You can add up to 1 cup.

Add these to the batter and fold in.

There we go, that's our super chocolate-heavy batter. Lick a little. Go ahead.

Pour in a buttered, floured brownie tray (or any tray you have).

Use the spatula to just level the top of the batter before you stick it in the oven.

Bake in a preheated 325F/approx 160C oven for 30-35 mins.

Cut into squares before serving. I think my walnut pieces were too big so I didn't get perfect squares but I couldn't care less. If was dense and yummy. If you have a nicer oven, you will get a crust like you see in professional brownies. My oven doesn't do that, unfortunately, but it was still awesome.

The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours, all in one place.

Tribute-To-Katherine-Hepburn Brownies

What I Used:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons finely ground instant coffee

2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup broken or chopped walnuts or pecans

4 ounces / 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

How I Made It:

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and grease with butter. Add some flour, tap on all sides and tap out the excess.

3. Whisk the flour, cinnamon, if you’re using it, and salt together.

4. Put the butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and place the pan over low heat. When the butter starts to melt, sift the cocoa over it and add the instant coffee. Continue to cook, stirring, until the butter is melted and the cocoa and coffee are blended into it. Remove from the heat and cool for about 3 minutes.

5. Using a whisk or a rubber spatula, beat the eggs into the saucepan one at a time. Next, stir in the sugar and vanilla (don’t beat anything too vigorously — you don’t want to add air to the batter), followed by the dry ingredients, nuts and chopped chocolate. Scrape the batter into the pan.

6. Bake for 30 minutes, at which point the brownies will still be gooey but the top will have a dry papery crust. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the brownies cool for at least 30 minutes. (You can wait longer, if you’d like.) Turn the brownies out onto a rack, peel away the paper and invert onto a cutting board. Cool completely before cutting into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side.

Enjoy and here's wishing you all a wonderful 2010, again.

This recipe goes to Mahimaa's Cakes and Cookies Roundup.