NewWelcome to my brand NEW website!My brand NEW website is here! All your favourite recipes are still here, each one with its video.

Find a recipeCan't find something? Tell me

SearchYouTube96.8K

Date Squares

Date squares is a traditional Christmas dessert, made with dates, oats, brown sugar and so much more.

By Bonita Hussey

4.77 ratings
Prep
20 min
Cook
20 min
Makes
1 pan
Serves
Family
Jump to recipe Watch me make it
Traditional Newfoundland Date Squares

About this recipe

Traditional Newfoundland Date Squares
Traditional Newfoundland Date Squares, are so delicious.

Hi and welcome to our website!

Date squares remind me of Christmas time, when your mom would be baking long before Christmas so there would be enough bake goods to last all Christmas long.

This is one of many recipe we loved making years ago. Big family’s and at Christmas time you would see a lot of visitors and bake good.

Traditional Newfoundland Date Squares
Tasty homemade date squares.

So getting back to the date squares they are so delicious they would be the first to go on our family gatherings.

Easy to make and a lasting impression to anyone who ate them.

Cherry Cake
Cherry cake with a sprinkle of snowflakes topping.

I also would like to share a link to my new cookbook and Cherry Cake is one of the recipe inside.

https://www.bonitaskitchen.com/cookbook

Cookbook
Bonita’s Kitchen Cookbook
Bonita's Kitchen Cookbook
This is a link to our second cookbook.

CONTINUE ON TO THESE DELICIOUS DATE SQARES RECIPE.

Traditional Newfoundland Date Squares
Delicious date squares so crispy on the outside and a creamy date filling on the inside.

The only time I make these delicious date squares are at Christmas Time!

Why!

They are so good.

Two weeks before Christmas I would start my baking and these delicious date squares are the top on my list.

Date Squares
Date mixture, boiled with brown sugar, butter, vanilla and water.
Oats, flour, butter, baking powder, and brown sugar mixed together for the bottom and the top of our delicious dates.
Oats, flour, butter, baking powder, and brown sugar mixed together for the bottom and the top of our delicious dates.

Christmas Time is when I love making these delicious date squares but they are also good anytime of the year.

These date squares are so good and its hard to eat only one.

There is not a lot of work to making these and your house will smell so good.

The bottom layer of the date squares before baked.
The bottom layer of the date squares before baked.
The date layer of your date squares
The date layer of your date squares
The date spread over the first layer of your crust
The date spread over the first layer of your crust

Just look at how lovely these dates squares look in all the stages of making them.

When you start making date square it will be apart of your christmas baking every year.

The final stages of your date squares before you bake  them……
The final stages of your date squares before you bake  them……

Everyone loves baking for their families or baking with their families, this is a prefect recipe for that.

I’m going to share with you another recipe you will love to make. 

Traditional Newfoundland Snowballs

Traditional Newfoundland snowballs
These little snowballs are full of oatmeal and coconut with Cocoa filling.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my website and to read my blog.

I have so many delicious recipe on our website you may like to try. Please leave me a message before you go and I would love to help you find the prefect recipe.   

” FROM OUR KITCHEN TO YOURS. ” 

Welcome to Bonita's kitchen
Thank You and Enjoy Bonita 🙂

The recipeDate Squares

One step at a time in big print, and your screen stays on.

Ingredients Tick them off

Filling

Crumble crust

Method Tap a step to keep your place

  1. Preheat oven to 350°, lightly grease your pans or line pan with parchment paper.

  2. Making your filling, in a medium pot add pack of chopped dates, 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp brown sugar, and 2 cups of water.

  3. 3 -Start the pot boiling on medium heat, stir occasionally for about 15 minutes or until filling is thickened, then remove from heat.

  4. Making your crumble, in a large bowl add 2 cups roll oats, 2 cups white or brown flour, 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup unsweetened coconut, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 cups of cubed unsalted butter. Mix all ingredients together with your hand until all is evenly incorporate together.

  1. Layering your pans, in a 11 x 14 inch pan or 7 x 11 inch pan or both, start by sprinkling your crumble mixture on the bottom layer of your pans about 1/3 inch thick, press the crumble mixture down on this layer.

  2. Then take about 3 or four scoops of your date mixture and put on top of your crumbles, spread evenly over your crumble mixture.

  3. Next step sprinkle another layer of crumbles mixture over the top of the date mixture. Don't press this layer down just sprinkle over the dates, just pat down lightly.

  4. Bake your date squares in a pre-heated oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

  5. 9 -Remove from heat let cool then cut in 2 x 2 inch squares.

  6. Never over bake your date squares check them part way through the baking time and if they look like they are almost golden brown turn oven off let rest for a couple of minutes then remove from oven. Remember ever oven is different when it comes to baking it's more important to check your baking then let it burn.

How did it turn out?

Tap a star to rate it.

What's in it
Allergens
  • Milk
  • Wheat

From my ingredient list. If you have an allergy, always check the labels on what you buy.

Share on Facebook

Email me this recipe

I'll send Date Squares to your inbox, so it's there when you need it.

Date Squares

Keeping your screen on

Step 1

Show the ingredients

    Watch me make it

    Filmed in our kitchen by RM Hussey Productions.Open on YouTube

    Join 96,800 people who watch me cook. I post new videos most weeks.

    Subscribe on YouTube

    Leave me a message

    Did you make it? Does it remind you of someone who used to make it? Tell me about it. Your email is never shown.

    Just your town and province or country. It shows beside your name.

    15 messages

    I answered 6 of them myself.

    1. Roger

      my crumble did not turn out as crumbly despite using exact same ingredient amounts. the crumble was more solid.

      Reply
      1. Bonita

        Sorry about that Roger! Anytime that happens in the future use more rolled oats to loosen the mixture. You can also use less butter. But that haven’t happened to me before so I’m not sure what happened. I hope they still taste good and thank you for stopping by and making our recipe.Happy New Year!!
        Bonita

        Reply
    2. Dana

      Hello Bonita, I made your date crumble recipe exactly as written and they turned out perfectly in my opinion. Some people thought the date layer was too thick. Question : If I reduced the amount of dates from the 500 grams, would I have to reduce the amount of water as well? Thanks.

      Reply
      1. Bonita

        Hi Dana: Thank you so much for your message and for making our date squares recipe. If you use less dates you will use less water, but you can also add just a little water at a time and to the consistency you would like. I always would say if you like the filling thick or thiner for your date squares.
        Enjoy
        Bonita

        Reply
    3. Kelly

      Hi Bonita. Ididn’t know Date Squares were a Newfoundland speciality. That is so interesting. One of these days I really want to visit. I’m living on the West Coast. Your recipe is great. Just finished making it, even if it isn’t Christmas ?. I didn’t have any coconut so I combined cashews, almonds and some Granola girl (west coast) Granola that has coconut to substitute. Also, I only used about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar in the base/top. It turned out great.

      Thanks again!

      Reply
      1. Bonita

        Hi Kelly and welcome, I’m so glad you made and enjoyed our date square recipe. Years ago here in Newfoundland and Labrador these tasty little treats were only made at Christmas time. Of course I make them anytime I need a date fix 🙂 my Mom is still eating the ones I gave her for Christmas, she keeps them in the freezer and just takes out a few each day for a snack. That sounds wonderful you substituted the coconut and even if you left it out they would be lovely. Stop by anytime and thank you for your message….enjoy your date squares. 🙂 Bonita

        Reply
    4. Marg Henley

      Bonita, I just finished making your snowballs. Our children love them. Thank you for your recipes. Date squares will be next. We are living in Vancouver and are grateful for technology.

      Reply
      1. Bonita

        Hi Marg, I’m so glad you made and enjoyed our snowball recipe, thank you for letting us know and enjoy to the fullest. Merry Christmas 🙂 Bonita

        Reply
    5. Patricia Dunne

      lost my nfld cookbook of 40yrs i have turned the house upside down. i only use once a year for my xmas baking! Today i taught i
      will try yahoo for nfld squares and there you are. tks so much for my favourite nfld square recipes. how can i get cookbook
      with these receipes.

      Reply
      1. Bonita

        Hi Patricia: Thank you for your message and I’m so glad you found us and we have over 200+ recipes here for you to enjoy and make. Its so hard when you can’t find your recipe book that you use at christmas time. We have lemon square, pineapple squares, cherry cake, fruit cake, gumdrop cake and so much more. 🙂 Enjoy Bonita

        Reply
      2. Shirley Chaulk

        ,your bottom/top mixture looks much dryer than mine. I used 11/2cups of butter as the ingredient said, and double checked all other dry ingredients to make sure there was nothing missing, with proper portions, but it seems to be to much butter when all was combined .it is now baking but I feel uncomfortable with the amount of butter used.

        Reply
    6. Joe

      Very excellent date squares! Make them all the time! FYI my moms family from outport island & she made date squares lots when we’re young. People & family say these taste better? Only addiction is I add some cinnamon to the dry mix.

      Reply
      1. Bonita

        Hi Joe: Thank you for your message and for visiting our website, thank you for sharing your helpful hints about adding cinnamon to the dry mix, sounds lovely. We grow up with these lovely date squares but only had them at Christmas time. Enjoy Bonita

        Reply
      2. Faye

        Hi Bonita, I was wondering, what if you left out the sugar from the dry mixture? I love date squares but generally find them too sweet. Does the dry mixture need the sugar in order for it to hold together? Ps, I used your cherry cake recipe for my sister’s birthday cake this summer and it was delicious! Thank you.

        Reply
        1. Bonita

          Hi Faye: Thank you so much for your message and I’m so glad you enjoyed the cherry cake recipe, thats ok if you leave the sugar out of the recipe or even if you put in 1 or 2 tbsp of brown sugar. The oat, coconut and butter will keep it together, thank you for leaving a message and enjoy to the fullest. 🙂 Bonita

          Reply

    Get my new recipes by email

    A short note from my kitchen with each new recipe and video. You can stop any time.

    Get my new recipes by email

    When I make something new, I'll send you a short note with the recipe and the video. You can stop any time.

    Find a recipe

    Popular: Jiggs dinner Toutons Bread Fish cakes Molasses Soup

    Love the new website? Let me know!

    What do you love about it? Tap as many as you like

    I may show your first name and where you're from on my website, like "Sandra from Carbonear loves Cook mode".