Date Cake Bagels & Beans

Finally I am getting to share the date cake recipe on my blog! My friend always makes this date cake since the last three years (I have not tried it myself just because I get it so often from my friend, shame on me!). Everyone who tastes this recipe falls in love with it. You would think that the date cake is as easy as the walnut brownie balls – no bake recipe, in fact it is kind of a bake version: you do not need the oven, but you do need the stove.

The recipe my friend uses is from the Dutch lunch room Bagels & Beans. On their website they share this recipe and they even serve the date cake in their lunch room. That is very kind and generous of Bagels & Beans to share that recipe with us! Unfortunately the recipe is in Dutch so I will translate the recipe:

Ingredients
500 grams of dates pitted and cut into slices
250 grams of butter
150 grams of brown sugarr
1 handfull of walnuts chopped into small pieces
1 role of Marie biscuits (break into pieces of 1 cm) – Marie biscuits are quite crunchy and light
1 egg
Caramel syrup (or praline/butterscotch)
Shredded coconut for garnishing

Method
In a big pan melt the butter
Add sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves a bit
Whisk an egg and add that to the pan; cook very fast and continue to stir
Add two shots of caramel syrup and let it cook
Add the dates, stir very well and let it cook for 1 minute
Add the broken pieces of Marie biscuits and heap (not stir) everything together

Put the mixture into a greased cake pan and press everything well together with a spoon. Let it cool down in the fridge for 1Â½ hour before cutting. The cake should be 1Â½ cm thick. If the cake is cooled down, you can sprinkle the shredded coconut as much as you desire.

Note: as you can see in the first picture my friend did not add the cookies to the mixture but she used it as a bottom layer in the pan.

Hmmm, digg in! This date cake does not taste one bit like the raw walnut brownie balls, but alot more creamier, sweeter and crunchier due to the Marie biscuits.