Tag Archives: dates

Thank goodness the school holidays are nearly over!  Although the thermomix has saved my bacon on a few occasions, the time I’ve had for cooking extra bits and pieces has been limited.

My three year old has just discovered the joy of cooking and I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s able to whip something up in the thermomix all by himself.  I’d been trying to get him into cooking for ages, but the clincher was the big boy step – so he wasn’t sitting on the bench any more, he’s actually standing up at the bench and can ‘help’ me much more easily.  The only downside is that he now knows he can get to what’s on the bench even without mum or dad around – luckily he’s a bit scared of the washing machine at the moment, so I just leave the lights on and it tends to keep him out of the laundry, where the offending step is stored!

I’ve never thought about making cakes or biscuits to have on hand for when guests arrive – the temptation of knowing they were there was too much for me.  But I wanted to try this recipe a amy neighbour had raved about it, I had all the ingredients in the pantry, and it was something that Master 3 could easily help with.  Sadly I can’t send them in his kinder lunchbox because of the nut factor, but I’m sure I can find something to substitute the nuts for.

This recipe is from Caroline Velik, who is a regular contributor to The Age’s Epicure and a very talented food stylist – just look at “In The Mix” as an amazing example.

From start to finish this took less than three quarters of an hour, so it’s a great recipe if you’re time poor or want some pretty instant gratification, so it’s ideal for making with the kids.  The mix – if you don’t use the coconut cream – makes quite a biscuity slice.  It’s quite delicious and very satisfying – a small piece is quite enough to keep you going.  I have been sorely tempted for another piece just because it tastes so good, but I really didn’t need it.

I used raw oats in my mixture, but I can imagine this is one of those recipes you can play around with to your hearts’ content and substitute other ingredients for.  I can imagine it would be lovely with dried apricots instead of dates (or “dog poo” as Master 3 identified them as ;-)) It would also be a great way to use up some of the weet bix crumbs that are always at the bottom of the box – 40 grams is about 2 and a half weet bix.

The mixture is pretty sticky – it must be all that honey – so I tipped it into a lined 20x20cm tin, put the thermomat on top and pushed it down till it was sitting in the tray nicely.  Let it cool in the tray till it’s really quite cool, and then slice into bars or biscuit sized pieces.

Highly recommended.  This will certainly be a regular menu item at our house!