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This is based on my mother's recipe for date squares, which were one of the regular afternoon
snacks that she used to bake for us when I was a child. Today, however, I find dates
rather too sweet to use in cooking, though I enjoy honey-dipped dates as a snack in the
winter. On the other hand, I love dried apricots. Or rather, I love
the type of dried apricots that were readily available in supermarkets when I was a child.
They were the most expensive of the dried fruit; and my mother bought them relatively
seldom. Sometimes, though, she would buy a package for me as a birthday present, or
stick one in my Christmas stocking.
These are halved apricots, rather tart and intense in flavour,
and utterly delicious. In the seventies, whole dried Turkish apricots became widely
available; and today they have pretty well superseded the old type, which are now hard to find,
at least in Toronto. Something I lament.
This recipe calls for the real thing, not the insipid Turkish.
I have added some ground walnuts to the crumble for flavour, and
used wholewheat flour instead of white flour. I have also bound the crumble with egg,
since I find the crumble tends to...well, crumble. Not that this was ever a
problem with my mother's date squares, since they never lasted long enough for the topping to
dry out. But it's another matter when the only people eating it are adults who have to
watch their weight.
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