New cookbook

[jennieg]

An organisation in Oz for women in rural areas is the Country Women's Association, or CWA. Their cooking is legendary - they even have competitions! Recently I bought a little book of date recipes published by the Namoi Group because Himself really likes dates, and he regards the CWA ladies' date loaves as The Best In The World. Last weekend I tried Grandma's Date Squares from the book - very nice. There are recipes for cakes and loaves, slices (called bars or squares in Canada/US), and all manner of other yummy things.

[sandrainsydney]

dates! yum.

[ragdall]

Jennie,
It sounds like a very useful book to have when you have date lover in the home.
Do Grandma's Date Squares have oatmeal in them?

rags

[jennieg]

No, Rags, no oatmeal.

2 cups SR flour (self raising - flour with baking powder added, can you buy that in B.C. or is it peculiar to Oz?)
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
125g butter
1 cup dates, finely chopped (I use kitchen scissors to chop dates)
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
Combine sifted flour and sugar in a bowl, rub in softened butter, a food processor makes short work of this. Press half the mixture evenly over the base of a 7" x 11" tin.
Add dates to remaining mixture, stir in combined egg and milk. Spread over base. Bake in moderate oven 180deg for 30 minutes. Cut into squares.

Enjoy!

[ragdall]

Sounds yummy, Jenny! Thank you for taking the time to type the recipe for us. I'd like to try it when I have visitors during the coming winter.

I haven't seen self raising flour, but I haven't looked for it either. I found this to substitute all purpose flour: For each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. In my case, I would omit the salt as we're supposed to be cutting back and the baking powder will add sodium, as well.

Isn't the internet useful? It told me that 180 degrees is 356 degrees F.

rags

[jennieg]

Rags, I very seldom add salt to anything, especially not sweet things........but I cannot come at mashed potato without a little sprinkle of salt!

Yesterday I made a date and pumpkin loaf, also very nice. It was supposed to be baked in a loaf tin but there seemed to be a bit much mixture for that, so I used an 8in square tin. I could probably have gotten away with the loaf tin as it didn't rise much, there is one cup of plain flour and one cup of self-raising flour in it.

[maeve]

Jennie, time for another recipe try out?

[jennieg]

Certainly, Maeve! Yesterday I made Butter Tart Squares, from the recipe in Canadian Living. www.canadianliving.com/food/baking_and_desserts/butter_tart_squares.php

They are yummy! I didn't quite have a cup of raisins, so I made up the weight with sultanas - and it is interesting that the squares aren't as sweet as usual, raisins must be sweeter than sultanas. They were made as a Canadian celebration, because yesterday our son's Canadian permanent residency came through and now he is a Fair Dinkum Canaussian, almost ten years to the day after he first arrived in Canada.

He was only going to be away one year......

[sandrainsydney]

congratulations to the parents of the new Canadian -

[ragdall]

Thank you, Jennie, for posting the recipe link. It looks delicious and not too difficult to make. I like that they list the Nutritional Information with the recipe.

Congratulations to your son for receiving his permanent Canadian residency. With the extreme winter weather Eastern Canada has been having, I'm sure he feels very Canadian!

[jennieg]

Thank you, Sandra and Rags! Toronto, where Doug lives, is having really horrible weather right now - a minimum of -24 deg C and a daytime maximum of -12 or so. To think he left Sunny Australia for that! We just can't begin to imagine how cold it must be over there on the far side of the known universe.

However if he hadn't gone to Canada he would never have met his lovely girlfriend, and we wouldn't have gone over (three times now) to see them, and met and made friends with other Canadians - we have wonderful friends in Ontario and in Victoria, B.C.