September 5th is an important day in our household as it’s my parents wedding anniversary. This year they are celebrating 34 years of marriage. They like to joke and say it’s been 34 long, hard years, but although long and hard, they have spent it together having a lot of fun along the way. So, we only thought it would be appropriate to pull out the recipe known as matrimonial square on the west side of our country or more commonly known as date square.
Did you know that date square is Canadian? We didn’t but we are always pleasantly surprised to discover one of the recipes our family enjoys originated here, and this is yet another family favourite. How could it not be with a sweet date filling sandwiched between two layers of golden-brown oatmeal shortbread? Yes, it can be a bit crumbly, but that won’t stop us from making it year-round.
My mom always made sure her mother, my grandmother, had a supply of date square in the freezer so she could pull out a piece to have with her tea whenever she felt like it. For Christmas we like to bake a square and drop it off at my aunt and uncles as it is one of my aunt’s favorites. Grandma would often make sure she had a piece when she came over to visit her.
This recipe is easy to make, but more importantly if you make it with love, like we did for my parents’ anniversary, or for my grandmother and aunt, it will always taste delicious. Do you have memories about date square? Leave us a comment, we would love to hear them!
Date filling
227g pitted dates
½ cup cold water
2 tbsp brown sugar
Shortbread
1½ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup room temperature* butter
1 cup brown sugar
1½ cups rolled(old-fashioned) or quick oats, do not use instant.
*Room temperature butter is cool to the touch. There should be a slight resistance when you indent it with your finger.
Break up the block of dates with your fingers into smaller pieces and combine with water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thick and smooth.
If you want the mixture to be smoother than shown here you could use an immersion blender. We prefer that the dates aren’t too smooth as it helps keep this square together. Also cleaning dates out of an immersion blender is not a lot of fun.
Set filling aside to cool.
In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, brown sugar and oatmeal. Dice butter into ¼’ cubes. Add butter to dry ingredients rubbing the butter with tips of fingers until butter is no larger than a dime.
Note: If you are doing this process in a food processor dice the butter into ½’ cubes. If you start too small you may over mix.
Line a square pan with parchment paper or grease pan. You can use different sizes if you prefer thicker or thinner date square, yes, the cooking time will vary. For this recipe we like to use an 8” by 8” pan.
Spread 3 cups of the crumb in the bottom of your pan loosely spreading until even before patting down until smooth.
Distribute the cooled date filling in dollops evenly over the first layer. Smooth with an offset spatula.
Sprinkle the remaining crumble evenly over the date filling. Pat until smooth.
Bake in a 350°F for 40 mins or until golden brown. We like ours a little on the darker side as it has more flavour.
Wait until cooled before cutting the square. We like to lift it out of the pan and cut it on a cutting board.
Tip from Jane: If you want it to look pretty on a plate, cut the date square into small pieces especially when plating with other squares.
Enjoy!
Date Square
Ingredients
Date filling
- 227 g pitted dates
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ cup cold water
Shortbread
- 1½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup room temperature butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1½ cups rolled(old-fashioned) or quick oats do not use instant
Instructions
Date filling
- Break up the block of dates with your fingers into smaller pieces and combine with water and sugar in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thick and smooth.
- Set filling aside to cool.
Date shortbread
- In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, brown sugar and oatmeal.
- Dice butter into ¼' cubes.
- Add butter to dry ingredients rubbing the butter with tips of fingers until butter is no larger than a dime.
Making the square
- Line a square pan with parchment paper or grease pan. You can use different sizes if you prefer thicker or thinner date square, yes, the cooking time will vary. For this recipe we like to use an 8'' by 8'' pan.
- Spread 3 cups of the crumb in the bottom of your pan loosely spreading until even before patting down until smooth.
- Distribute the cooled date filling in dollops evenly over the first layer. Smooth with an offset spatula.
- Sprinkle the remaining crumble evenly over the date filling. Pat until smooth.
- Bake in a 350°F oven for 40 mins or until golden brown. We like ours a little on the darker side as it has more flavour.
- Wait until cooled before cutting the square. We like to lift it out of the pan and cut it on a cutting board.
