Date & apple squares

30-60 minutes 600 kcal or less bake sale chewy bar flapjacks fruity bake garden glut joyce buzza oat bars reader recipe traybake

N/A

Makes 8

Source

Ingredients

225g butter , plus a little extra for greasing

140g cooking apple , peeled, cored and chopped

140g stoned date , chopped

280g light soft brown sugar

175g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g porridge oat

Method

Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Grease an 18cm square tin and line with baking parchment.

Tip the apples into a pan with 2 tbsp water. Bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat for 5 mins until tender and slightly pulpy. Add the dates and 50g of the sugar, and cook for a further 5 mins. Take off the heat and break the apples down with the back of a spoon until smooth and well mixed with the dates. Set aside.

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan. Mix the flour, bicarb, oats and remaining sugar in a bowl. Pour in the melted butter and stir well until oats are coated.

Press half the mixture firmly into the tin, spread the apple mix on top and smooth over. Cover with the remaining oat mixture and press down. Bake for 30-35 mins until golden and firm. Cool in the tin before cutting into squares.