Date Nut Bars with Citrus Glaze

These are delicious! Actually, they are very delicious! I made a batch for my husband’s office and they were a big hit! I used maple sugar for the sweetener and Measure for Measure gluten free flour. Both worked well in the recipe…I froze 3 pre measured containers of apple juice as I intend to make these bars several times! A winner in my book!

Reader and Date Nut Bar lover Carol

Date Nut Bars, At a Glance

✔️Skill Level: Advanced Beginner
✔️Skills: Toasting Nuts, Chopping Nuts, The Creaming Method (linked), Simmering, Baking
✔️Type: Layered Bar Cookies
✔️Number of Ingredients: Oatmeal Dough: 8, Date Nut Filling: 7, Optional Glaze: 3
✔️Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
✔️Cook Time: 30 minutes
✔️Yield: 48 bar cookies

Jump Straight to the Recipe

Date Nut Bar Tasting Notes

These bars are greater than the sum of their parts, but each part is pretty excellent on its own:

• Crust
  • Crumbly oatmeal with a hint of cinnamon, sweetened with brown sugar
  • A little chewy on top, firmer on the bottom so the top may crumble a bit as you eat them but the bottom won’t
• Filling
  • Sweet, fruity, mellow
  • Stays soft and a bit gooey for several days at room temperature
  • Citrus lift from the orange zest
  • Bites of toasted walnuts add textural contrast and keep the filling from reading as too sweet
• Glaze
  • Thin and crisp so it shatters when you bite into it
  • Bright tart lemon balanced with just a tiny bit of salt

Taken together, the bars contain a lovely contrast of tastes, textures, and levels of sweetness.

While the glaze–any glaze–is technically optional, I do love that bright, tart lemon note this glaze affords.

If these sound right up your alley and you decide to make them, I have a favor to ask:

How to Make Date Walnut Bars

These bars are easy to make. The filling thickens up beautifully and there is no need to chop the dates.

The dough is a simple, no-egg creaming method crumble that you can make with a stand mixer, hand mixer, or even by hand.

No pre-baking of the bottom layer separately also means that the layering process is quick and simple.

If you already know you want to make these and don’t need any other instruction, you can jump straight to the recipe.

If you’re a newer baker, in the next sections I’ll go over all the ingredients, offer some substitutions where it makes sense to do so, and walk you through all the steps.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Medjool dates: I prefer Medjool dates for their luscious flavor and texture. They are very sticky, but since there’s no need to chop them, I think they’re the best choice. If you cannot find Medjool, you can use prechopped dates in the same aisle as raisins. Or use Deglet Noor dates, which are also tasty but a bit firmer with a more caramel-y flavor (Source and differences between these two types of dates) No dates? Substitute an equal amount of dried and chopped figs. My friend June made these with figs and said they were fantastic!
• Apple juice: This is the liquid for cooking the dates, so why not use one with more flavor than water? You can use water, though, for a slightly less sweet filling. You could consider using other fruit juices here such as cherry juice or pineapple juice. Just know you may need to adjust the amount of sugar depending on the juice you use
• Dark brown sugar: Used in both the filling and the crust. You may also use light brown sugar or even granulated sugar plus a couple of teaspoons of molasses. If you don’t have molasses, substitute honey. Adjust the level of sugar, especially in the filling, to your liking
• Kosher salt: Balances and focuses all the flavors, especially bringing out the nuttiness in the oats and walnuts
• Orange zest: Brightens the filling with a lovely citrus lift. Use the zest from 1 medium orange
• Toasted walnuts: Whether you buy walnut halves or pieces, you’ll want to toast them for deeper flavor. Pieces will toast more quickly than halves, so keep an eye on them. I toast halves in the toaster oven, but pieces, I toast in a dry pan on the stove so I can keep a closer eye on them. Once the oil in the nuts starts to sizzle, they’ll go from perfect to burned quickly, so err on the side of caution. If you don’t love walnuts, substitute almost any other nut you can think of. Pecans or cashews would be particularly nice
• Vanilla extract: Rounds out the flavors in the filling providing some warm, floral, and woody notes
• all-purpose flour: Makes up the bulk of the crust, adding structure. Stick with all-purpose here. Cake flour will yield a too-crumbly crust and bread flour will make a crust that is too tough
• Unsalted butter: Used in the crust, butter carries flavor and tenderizes the crust so it’s not tough and dry
• Cinnamon: Provides just a hint of spice without being overtly cinnamony. You can leave it out if you don’t like cinnamon or prefer or a more straightforward flavor for your bars
• Rolled Oats: Use old-fashioned oats or quick-cooking. I’d stay away from instant oats because they don’t add a lot of extra texture
• Baking soda: A powerful leavener, baking soda provides some lift and puff to the crust so it’s not too hard and crunchy. It also neutralizes the acidic molasses in the brown sugar
• Water: You need a couple of tablespoons of water to bring the crust to the correct consistency for pressing tightly into the pan and also for crumbling on top of the date filling. I’ve used milk before, but I think it makes the crust too tough. Stick with water here
• Powdered sugar: For the glaze. You’ll be making a thin, lacy coating for the bars, so you don’t need tons. It provides sweetness and also forms a syrup with the lemon juice to make a nice, drizzly consistency
• Lemon juice: Provides a nice, tart flavor to the glaze which contrasts beautifully with the mellow, nutty filling. If you don’t like lemon, you can substitute some milk to make a more neutral glaze

Procedure

To Make the Filling

Pitting whole Medjool dates is super easy. They are so soft that all you have to do is press into them until you get to the pit. Then just pull it out, making sure to get that blossom end (as in the first photo) as well.

Then all the filling ingredients except the chopped nuts and vanilla go into a pan.

Slowly bring the mixture to a boil, using a wooden spoon or spatula to mash and chop the dates as the mixture heats.

Simmer the date mixture for about five minutes, stirring and smooshing the dates frequently, until nice and thick.

Off the heat, stir in the vanilla and toasted nuts.

Set aside to cool down while you make the crust

For the Crust

First, you’ll cream together the butter, dark brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon until nice and smooth.

The mixture doesn’t have to be fluffy–we’re not making a cake. Then mix in the water until completely incorporated.

Whisk together the flour, oats, and baking soda and then dump them in on top of the creamed mixture and mix on low speed until all the flour is absorbed and the mixture is crumbly.

Test it by squeezing some. If it holds its shape, you’re good to go.

Then, dump a bit more than half the oatmeal mixture into your pan and press it out into a tightly packed, even layer about 1/4″ thick.

Assembling and Baking

Once your crust is made and pressed into the pan, your date filling should be cool enough to plop it onto the crust. Make sure it’s just barely warm and not hot, because you don’t want it to melt the butter in the crust.

Crumble the rest of the oatmeal mixture evenly over the date filling. You should have enough to almost completely cover the filling. But some open spots are perfectly fine. Nothing bad will happen.

Then, all you have to do is bake for about 30-35 minutes. I think mine took 33 minutes at 350F in the center of my oven.

Once the bars are completely cool, glaze them (or not), let the glaze set up for at least a couple of hours, and then slice the bars into 48 slices (or your preferred number of slices).

Equipment You May Need

As long as you have a pot and a baking pan, you can make these bars.

I have to say, though, I do love my quarter-sheet pan. It has the same dimensions as a standard 9″ x 13″ pan but with sides that are only an inch tall as opposed to 2″.

This makes removing the bars (or brownies) so much easier.

I also need to give a shoutout to my favorite pan by OXO. I use it almost every day, including cooking the filling for these bars in it.

Date Bars Q & A

Other Bar Cookie Recipes

For a sweet, Graham cracker-chocolate-marshmallow extravaganza, try my S’mores bars. They’re sweet and gooey, and kids and adults are guaranteed to enjoy them.

For unadulterated lemon deliciousness, try my luscious lemon bars. They are super tart and lemony and made for lemon lovers.

And for chocolate perfection, my fudgy, cocoa powder brownies are truly a decadent treat.

And if you are all about the oatmeal, even though these aren’t bar cookies, I think you’ll love my chewy oatmeal raisin cookies.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this post or recipe, I am happy to help.

Simply leave a comment here and I will get back to you soon. I also invite you to ask question in my Facebook group, Fearless Kitchen Fun.

If your question is more pressing, please feel free to email me. I should be back in touch ASAP, as long as I’m not asleep.

A Note About Measurements

My recipes are almost all written by weight, including liquids, unless otherwise specified.

For accuracy and consistency of results, I encourage you to buy–and use–a kitchen scale.

I promise that baking and cleanup will be so much quicker and easier.

This is the scale that I recommend for home use. I have owned and used one for years.

Thanks so much for spending some time with me today.

I hope you enjoy the date nut bars. The combination of the sweet, mellow filling with the crumbly dough and hints of orange and lemon are really hard to beat.

Take care, and have a lovely day.