A delicious treat made using better-for-you ingredients. These healthy date oat squares make the perfect lighter treat when you’re craving something sweet, but still want it to nourish your body.
Would you believe me if I said you can make a delicious date oat bar without any processed sugar or oil?
That’s exactly what I did to create these healthy date oat squares. I’m using whole dates only to sweeten and tahini as a healthier alternative to oil or butter.
This recipe is inspired by my favourite sweet treat growing up in Iraq called Kleicha – a date swirl cookie/pastry spiced with cinnamon and cardamom. They’re usually served during celebrations and the holy month of Ramadan. Since we’re already a week into Ramadan, I craved something nostalgic that would take me back to my childhood.
Dates are one of my favourite ingredients to use in healthier desserts. They add so much natural sweetness, meaning you don’t need to add as much sugar, or in the case of this recipe, you don’t need to add any additional sweetener at all!
I like using Medjool dates because they’re soft, gooey and have a lovely fudgy texture to them. I do appreciate they’re not the cheapest ingredient, so you can use other types of dates instead. You may need to add more water depending on how dry they are to help break them down into a spreadable paste.
These healthy date oat squares are so wholesome and easy to make. You definitely need to give them a go! They make a lovely lighter dessert when you’re craving something sweet, but nourish your body at the same time.
They’re a good source of fibre from the dates and oats. They also contain 5g of protein per serving!
What you need to make these healthy date oat squares:
Dates – Medjool dates or other soft varieties work best to create a smooth, spreadable paste. They add enough sweetness that you don’t need to use any extra sugar to make them taste good!
Oats – I’m using a mixture of oats and ground oats (aka oat flour). You can use gluten-free oats if you need the recipe to be gluten-free. I make my own oat flour by blending oats into a fine flour in a high-speed blender.
Tahini – This works as a replacement for butter/oil. Runny tahini works best as it makes it easier to mix everything together and help it hold. I like using Lebanese tahini, which you can get from ethnic/Asian shops or online.
Spices – I’m using cardamom and cinnamon – both work so well with dates! You can leave them out if you prefer, but I would highly recommend adding them.
These healthy date oat squares are:
- Easy to make
- Made using healthier ingredients
- Sweetened with dates
- A good source of fibre
- Vegan
- Gluten-free
- Nut-free
- Oil-free
- Dairy-free
- Made without refined sugars
- Only call for a few ingredients
- And so delicious!
Healthy Date Oat Squares
Ingredients
For the date layer
- 250g Medjool dates* or soft dates
- 4-6 tbsp water**
- Pinch of salt
For the oat layer
- 90g oat flour***
- 75g oats***
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 120ml tahini
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan/350F.
- In a large bowl, mix together the oats, oat flour, spices, baking powder and a small pinch of salt.
- Pour in the tahini and mix to combine. Set to the side while you prepare the date filling.
- Add the dates, water and a pinch of salt to a pan and cook over a low/medium heat. Mash with the back of a wooden spoon until you have a smooth date paste.
- Press 2/3 of the oat mixture into a lined loaf tin, then spread the date paste on top. (I used a 24cm x 15cm loaf tin).
- Crumble the remaining 1/3 of the oat mixture to create the oat topping.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, then allow to cool completely before slicing. You can slice them into bars or squares.
- Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
What if so don’t have tahini?
A runny nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter should also work 🙂
Very nice recipe chef ???. Really yummy ?. Thank you for your effort ??
So glad you enjoyed Jasson 🙂
Can these be frozen?
Hiya, just made these, and they are amazing! Super easy to make and could quite easily eat half a batch in one sitting! Would this work with other dried fruit, for example apricots or prunes?
So glad you enjoyed them Chinelle 😀 Yes, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with other dried fruit, you may need to add a little more water depending on how dry the fruit are. I need to give them a try myself – love the idea of an apricot version 😀
Hi 🙂 I made these exactly how recipe stated..except for the addition of 1/4 teaspoon vanilla in the date and water mixture & a bit more water..
It was very tasty! Thank you!
Yay so glad you enjoyed them 🙂 Thank you for your feedback x
Thanks Nadia, this was amazing.
Turned out a bit too crumbly to slice and hold together, so we had it over vanilla coconut yoghurt.
Will definitely make it again – love tahini and love dates
Hi is it possible to replace the tahini with for example not butter? Looks amazing, best regards !
A runny nut butter will also work 🙂
thank you! 🙂
Hi
Thank you will try them!
Can I bake then in an air fryer?
What settings you recommend?
Thank you
Sophie
Hi Sophie 🙂 I haven’t tried baking them in the air-fryer, but they should work. Depends on your air-fryer setting – mine has a baking setting, so if I were to bake in my air-fryer I would set it to bake at 160C for 10-20 minutes. You would need to check on them regularly because I find the air-fryer bakes a lot quicker than the oven. Again I haven’t tried it myself so not 100% sure how they’ll turn out. Let me know if you try them 🙂
Can I use ordinary flour?
HiTeresa 🙂 It should work, although I haven’t tried using plain flour to make this recipe, so I can’t be 100% sure the results will turn out the same
I don’t need religion lessons when reading recipes, thanks.
No one’s giving a religion lesson.
So interesting to learn about other cultures and their foods. I find it very open minding to try things from all over the world. I will definitely try these today though I was thinking of adding some homemade raspberry sauce instead of water for the dates? Will see how it works.
Unnecessary comment about religion.
Just go to another site if you don’t like it. ?
I read recipes all the time where people talk about their personal relationship with the recipe. In many cases people speak of the culture or celebration around the recipe as well. Christmas is a perfect example of this. I am surprise by the rudeness and intolerance of others to be open to learn of something relevant to many people and many cultures and even to different religious celebrations or traditions.
You are right that if one doesn’t like it to go elsewhere instead of be rude and silence the sharing of the person who shared the recipe.
Dates also bring back great childhood memories for me as well here in the Midwest. My grandmother would make the best date pinwheel cookies. I always thought it was her personal creation but as I got older I realized this might not be the case. I still call them Grandmas date cookies. Your date bar sounds much easier to make & I can’t wait to try it. Thanks!
Thank you for this recipe. What flour would you recommend, if I wanted to make it low carb ?
Hi Anne 🙂 You could try almond flour, although I haven’t tried it myself and don’t have much experience with it, so I can’t say how it’ll turn out or if you will need to amend the quantities.
Yum! Trying to find more ways to incorporate dates into my diet as I am getting close to birthing my baby! Studies show dates can help avoid a post term delivery. These turned out really good. I did add some honey to crust mixture and vanilla bean paste to date mixture.
I’ve made this recipe several times (as written). Delicious. I usually double it and freeze half as it’s a great dessert to have on hand and serve with tea when unexpected guests drop by! It has the perfect amount of sweetness from the dates, too. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
These are amazing! Love that you used tahini instead of oil. You’re the one who introduced me to tahini. I’d never used it in recipes before, certainly not desserts but now tahini desserts are my favourite!
They came out good. I would add Peanut butter for a little flavour or crushed nuts.
These are good. I added 1/4 tsp of vanilla as suggested by one reviewer. I didn’t have quite enough dates, so I added a few prunes. I also added a little brown sugar–but it would have been sweet enough without it.
Theses are the best I have ever made Seriously I have made many sugar free date squares
This recipe tops them all . The ones in the store have added sugar 😱
They took me to church 😂😂😂
who measures in grams? it makes it so hard to do this recipe.
We measure in grams in the UK. Makes it more accurate 🙂