My endless quest for lunch-box sweet things has led me often in the direction of Date Squares in several incarnations because they taste delicious, can cope in varying temperatures and transport well.  Not only that – they keep for a few days in an airtight box and, if that’s not long enough, freeze beautifully.

I make them year-round but they do ‘feel’ autumnal.

Storecupboard good things, including that last tired apple in the fruit bowl.

I start with the date-y mix as that needs to cool.  First the dates, chopped smallish.

The zest of one orange.

It irritates me when a recipe asks for the zest and leaves me with the juice.  A warm orange will give more juice than a cold one.  Cut the orange in half on a slight diagonal to make it easier to squeeze.

I add water to the juice.

An old fashioned box grater is the perfect tool for this.  Peel and core an apple and coarsely grate.

Into a saucepan.

Cook, uncovered, on a low-medium heat.

Ten minutes later, the liquid has evaporated and it looks like this.  Set it aside to cool.

I really like to add nuts to my topping.  Half a packet seems about right.  Hazelnuts here, but I might have used walnuts just as easily. Cobnuts are fun, when they’re in season.  I buy mine with skins on.  Toast for about 10 minutes.  You’ll need to keep an eye on them as burnt nuts taste bitter.

Rub them in a clean tea towel and the skins come off.  Mostly.  I really don’t worry about what is left.

Then chop.

Plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, light brown sugar/light muscovado and rolled porridge oats.

Rub in the butter until it forms clumps.

It’s not a breadcrumb texture.

Put half into the prepared 20cm/8″ square tin.

Flatten out.

Spread out the date mixture.

Add the nuts to the remaining ‘half’ and place that on top of the date mixture.

40 minutes later it looks like this.  Allow it to cool in the tin.

Then cut into squares.

Eat.

 

Date, Apple, Orange and Hazelnut Squares – Makes 12

• 150g/5oz dates, stoned weight, chopped
• 1 orange, zest and juice
• 1 apple – peeled, cored and grated
• Water – to make orange juice up to 200ml/8fl oz
• 175g/6oz plain flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 175g/6oz light muscovado sugar
• 150g/5oz porridge oats
• good pinch of salt
• 175g/6oz unsalted butter
• 50g/2oz hazelnuts

If using a conventional oven, pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/Gas Mark 4/350ºF.  Butter and line a 20cm/8″ x 20cm/8″ tin.

Place the dates, orange zest, orange juice, water and grated apple in a saucepan.  Over a low-medium heat, bring up to a simmer.  Cook, uncovered, for about ten minutes until you have a thick, soft mixture.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Toast the hazelnuts in the oven for about ten minutes, then rub the skins off in a clean tea towel.  Chop.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate into a bowl.  Add the porridge oats, light muscovado sugar, salt – and mix well.  Add the butter and rub it in until it forms clumps.

Press half the mixture into the buttered tin.  Spread the date and apple mixture over.  Finally, add the chopped nuts to the remaining oat mixture and sprinkle over the top.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes.

Allow to cool completely in the tin, then cut into squares.

Eat.

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Shirley Conran very effectively sold the idea that ‘life’s too short to stuff a mushroom’ – but in the struggle against the relentless pressure on women to be ‘perfect’, why did the poor vegetable get it?  Now, if she’d written life was too short to clean windows or dust furniture …  I’d have agreed.

I may be hurtling towards fifty but I’ve yet to lose my little girl love of individual portions and I particularly like it when nature does the portioning.  Maybe it’s just I’ve never learnt how to share properly?  Worrying thought.

Little gem squashes seem to be a bit overlooked in the UK.  At the supermarket you’ll find them, sometimes, alongside the more usual butternut squashes.  They are about the size of a large orange and have a sweeter flesh than a butternut, an edible skin and a perfectly formed stuff-able cavity when the seeds are removed.

This is one of my Liddy’s favourite things to eat.  I normally use chestnut mushrooms, but since I knew these were going to have their picture taken I bought some fancy ones …

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the scrubbed gem squash for about 4 minutes.  If you’ve an enormous one, maybe a minute longer.

Once they’ve had their time, scoop them out of the water with a perforated spoon and set them to cool naturally.

Once they have cooled, cut the top quarter off to make a ‘lid’.  Keep the tops …

A teaspoon deals with the seeds.

Since the squash are partly cooked this is so easy.  None of that usual scraping you associate with the pumpkin family.  Throw the seeds away.

Strip the thyme leaves from their stalks.  Rosemary, chopped very fine, is a completely different flavour but a nice substitute if you don’t have any fresh thyme.

Mix together 100ml of olive oil (or rapeseed oil – England doesn’t have the climate for growing olives but does produce fantastic ‘nutty’ rapeseed oil …), garlic, salt, freshly ground black pepper and 1 teaspoon of thyme leaves.

Place the gem squash on a baking tray and divide the oil evenly between them.

Replace the ‘lid’ and roast until soft.

Meanwhile, pour the double cream into a saucepan.

Add the garlic, salt, pepper and thyme leaves.  Over a very low heat infuse and slightly thicken the cream.

In a large frying pan, gently warm a drizzle of oil and the final garlic clove, finely ‘microplaned’.  Add the mushrooms (about 100g per serving), then toss over a high heat until golden.  Add the chopped parsley.

Top up the oil with the warm cream and divide the remaining cream between the shallow soup plates.  Place the gem squash in the centre.

Top with the mushrooms and serve with the lid ‘artistically’ place to one side.

Eat.

 

 

Roasted Gem Squash with Mushrooms and Cream – Serves 6

• 6 gem squash
• 100ml olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, grated on a fine microplane grater or crushed to a puree with salt
• salt and pepper
• 300ml double cream
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• 600g mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4.

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil.  Wash the gem squash and add them to the boiling water.  Cook for about 4 minutes, with some slight flexibility depending on size of your squash.

Scoop out with a perforated spoon and place on a cooling rack.  Allow them to cool at room temperature.

When cool, slice off the top quarter and put on one side.  Use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds and throw them away.  Transfer the gem squash to a baking sheet.

In a jug mix the olive oil with 1 clove of grated garlic (or a third of the puree), salt, freshly ground black pepper and 1 teaspoon of thyme leaves.  Divide this mixture between the 6 Gem squash.  Replace the lids and roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the flesh is beautifully soft.  (Aga:  Cook bottom set of runners in the Roasting Oven for about 20 minutes, turning once.)

Meanwhile, place the double cream in a saucepan.  Add 1 cloves of grated garlic and 1 teaspoon of thyme leaves, picked off the stalks.  On a very low heat, allow to simmer.  The cream will thicken very slightly and infuse with the flavours of the thyme and garlic.  Season to taste.

Heat a drizzle of oil in a frying pan over a very low heat, add the final clove of grated garlic and, once the oil has taken on some of the flavour of the garlic but not coloured, add the mushrooms.  Turn up the heat and toss until the mushrooms are golden and coated in the garlicky oil.  Season.  Then add the chopped parsley.

Fill the remaining space in the cavities with cream and divide what’s left between six shallow soup plates.  Place the gem squash in the centre of a pool of cream and top the squash with the garlicky mushrooms.  Some will fall to the side.  Add the squash ‘lid’.

It’s particularly lovely served with warm walnut or hazelnut bread.

Eat.

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