Edinborough Date Bars

It seems like Grandma Petrie made these once when I was very young. I make these most every Christmas since I began baking in my teens. I find my mixer bowl is not large enough, so I make half the oat mixture at a time. Do the bottoms first, then the tops. Or use a very large bowl and a hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar. I thought I was making too much, but they are all gone by Christmas!

Yield: 4 dozen

5 cups  (20 oz.) Chopped dates
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ cups Water
1 cup Chopped walnuts
3 ½ cups Sifted flour
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Salt
1 ½ cups Butter
2 cups Brown sugar
3 cups Rolled oats

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease two 13”x 9” pans.

Cook dates with sugar and water. Cool and stir in nuts.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in flour mixture. Fold in oats.

Press ½ of oat mixture in bottom of pans. Spread date mixture over oats. Sprinkle rest of oat mixture over dates and pat lightly in place.

Bake 25 minutes or until just browned. Cool. Cut into bars while still warm.