In every vintage cookbook I’ve perused (100s) there are recipes for date bars. Some community group cookbooks have multiple recipes for them.
I have never liked the looks of dates. Their dark appearance made them look unappetizing so I never tried them.
After deciding to find out what the fuss was, I chose this recipe, feeling like I could trust Irma S. Rombauer to share a good recipe for Date Bars – and now I know!
Date bars are sticky, gooey (they are two different things), crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Oh, and delicious!
They are simple to make and other than my purchase of a bag of dates, everything else was in my pantry.
I prefer to list ingredients as a group at the beginning of a recipe, but in this instance I left it to Irma’s expertise to blend ingredients with processes.
This came from the original edition of The Joy of Cooking published in 1953 by Bobbs-Merrill Co, Inc. There are many editions in between written by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker (her daughter)—I have several of them.
This is one popular cookbook. There are Facebook groups dedicated to it and even a podcast. As you can see, the previous owner used this copy quite a lot. After all, it’s almost three-quarters of a century old!
The headnote for this recipe in the cookbook states “This delicious date bar remains soft and fresh for long time.” I doubt if your date bars will last that long.
Enjoy!
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I have some exciting news about my vintage recipe endeavors!
In addition to quarterly recipes I publish in a local magazine called ‘Senior Living’, I now have a monthly column called ‘Vintage Cooking’ in a newspaper with wider distribution in northeastern Indiana called ‘Senior Life.’
My first recipe for ‘Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce’ came out this week. It appeared in a cookbook for Elks Women in Fort Wayne Indiana in 1990. It is a great dessert for cooler weather. Here is the link.
There is even an audio recording of the recipe, should anyone have visual problems.
Senior Life will also publish vintage recipes from me every Wednesday. This kind of deadline keep me hopping and my kitchen buzzing, but it’s good to finally be able to have a clear head after grieving for so long. Baking has helped me focus when I could not even see straight at times.
Thanks for your support.
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1953 Date Bars
Beat until light:
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
Add sugar gradually.
Blend these ingredients until very light.
Add 2 cups chopped dates and 1 cup broken (chopped) nuts (I omitted nuts)
Sift before measuring:
1 cup flour
Resift with 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Add:
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Add sifted ingredients to egg mix with 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Beat batter until ingredients are well blended.
Pour into greased and floured 9×13” pan. (I use parchment paper)
Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.
When cake is cool, cut into 42 2.5×1” bars. Roll them in powdered sugar. (I omitted rolling in sugar to avoid messes)
Yield: 42 2.5×1” bars
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