Almond date breakfast bars from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook: Recipes and Wisdom from an Obsessive Home Cook (page 21) by Deb Perelman

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • louie734 on September 30, 2023

    I've now made this dozens of times, and this is the trick: Soak, then blend 2/3 to 3/4 of the dried fruit (yes, dates, but I've also used some raisins). Into the blender goes all the other ingredients that could qualify as liquid. I've also subbed out almost all of the fat for a mix of applesauce & date soaking water. Once blended, this muck poured over the oats/flour/chopped fruit & nuts acts as a glue, requiring a parchment-lined (loaf) pan. Pack it down well, then bake. NOW you have crumble-free bars - the texture is similar to a Clif bar - and they store super well in the freezer (wrap individually, then pack into a ziplock). Different flavors come from the (unblended) fruit and nuts/seeds - I like to use pumpkin seeds + peanuts + dried cherries for a kinda pb&j flavor. Could also use chocolate chunks, banana chips, coconut flakes, dried apples. Lots of options.

  • kshell on September 27, 2023

    I've had my eye on this recipe for almost a decade. Finally got around to it, and while I enjoy the flavor combo and sweetness level (very reasonable) my bars came out a bit crumbly. This isn't a deal breaker but there you go. I lost some corners when cutting them and you absolutely need to eat them with a plate or your hand underneath to catch all the crumbs that you will certainly make. Baked for 20 min.

  • Rutabaga on September 23, 2014

    I made one significant change to this recipe, and one minor one. Significantly, I used what was sold as "baking dates" at the Middle Eastern market, which is basically a gooey date puree. I mixed this with the other liquid ingredients, using only about a half cup (compared with the one cup of chopped dates suggested) because I was afraid the bars would otherwise be too sticky. My other substitution was using peanut butter in place of almond butter. Next time, I will use more dates, whether pureed or chopped, and also not leave them in the oven as long. Because I was concerned that they were underdone, I baked the bars for half an hour, and they turned out fairly dry. I think baking them no more than 25 minutes, combined with amping up the date content, would yield tastier, moister bars, and the additional sweetness would also be welcome. Otherwise, the flavor is pleasing, so I hope these changes will yield the breakfast bars I'm craving.

  • Vanessa on March 16, 2013

    I've been eying this since I got the cookbook, but I never seem to have dates. Today I broke down and made this with what I had on hand: raisins instead of dates, pecans instead of almonds, flax seed instead of wheat germ, old-fashioned oats rather than "quick", and lemon extract and powdered lemon peel instead of orange zest and almond extract. (Who knew I was out of so many pantry essentials!) They were really good. They were crumbly, but the 4 tiny ones that actually made it into the fridge to cool did set up very nicely. They were WAAAY tasty and disappeared rapidly! Re-made it this afternoon (after shopping!) due to popular demand. This time I had almond extract, but I kept the other ingredients the same since we'd liked them so much.

  • louie734 on January 29, 2013

    I wasn't crazy about the almond + cinnamon + orange flavor combination, but these held together well and disappeared quickly enough.

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