1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup flour
2 cup oatmeal
1/4 tsp baking soda
Directions
Cream the butter and shortening; gradually add the brown sugar, then
the flour, oatmeal and soda. This will give you a very stiff dough,
which you will have to knead with the hands to work smooth. Do not be
tempted to add liquid.If it will not hold to-gether its because the
shortening and butter were not sufficiently well creamed. Divide into
two portions and roll half to 1/4 in. thickness and spread out on
bottom of a greased pan. Cover with following date mixture: 1/2 cup
of dates chopped, 1/2 cup brown sugar, one tblsp. cornstarch, 1 cup
of hot water. Cook till thick stirring constantly. Spread over
oatmeal mixture and roll second oatmeal portion and put on top. Bake
about 1 hour in 350 oven.
Servings: 12 servings
Canadian Date Squares Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cookie; Fruit
The History of Recipes
We can trace the history of meal recipes way back into distant history, certainly as far back into recorded history as pharonic Egypt, and quite possibly further than that. Interesting though that maybe, these, ancient cook books were just simple hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing food.
In fact, the oldest recipe in existence, according to experts in ancient history are a few stone tablets in the Sumerian language describing the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making people feel exhilarated. During the time of the Romans a man called Apicius compiled some documents which described recipes enjoyed by the Romans. In his works, he describes how the roman meals were separated into hors d`oeuvres, main course and afters, something that is very familiar to us today. Aspicius informs us how the ancient Romans were skilled in the use of many different herbs and spices, including a few you will know such as bay, rue and parsley. Moving our culinary historical trip onwards, we have a couple of interesting cookery books which were published in the fourteenth century : a book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another titled `Curye on Inglish`. Despite their titles, these books are not about the curry that appears on menues today, but instead recipes for the types of food enjoyed by the rich and powerful of the period. Later on, in the 15th century, knights returning from the crusades brought us many new foods and herbs from the holy lands, including spices like basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new culinary ideas created an increase in manuscripts on cooking, some of which are now in private collections. Over the next few hundred years, the wealthy families of Europe tried to serve up the most extravagent meals, and consequentially the best chefs and their collection of recipes increased in prestige. However, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that formal cookery and recipe publications rose to prominence. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the USA, devoted much of their lives to assembling, verifying, and publishing popular recipes of the day. When we get to the 20th century, recipe books were increasing in popularity mostly as a result of better eduction, people having increased free time and a general increase in wealth. |
We hope you enjoy this Canadian Date Squares recipe.
