Lemon Date Squares -- the whole foods, lemony, vegan, delicious, low sugar version.

Well, I was trying to figure out what would make an elegant dessert for mother's day.  One that would make all the moms happy. Chocolate cake? Too heavy for lunch. Coffee cake? Too prosaic. Well, inspired by an article in the Globe and Mail of all places, I came up with this lemony date square, to be served with lemon coconut milk ice cream.  Yes, I am amazing. Bow down. Just kidding. But this simple and elegant dessert rocks. Seriously. But only if you like date squares. Which we do.

ingredients:


date filling:

2½ cups honey dates, pitted and chopped
2 cup water
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tbsp ground  vanilla
pinch sea salt
a little black pepper

ingredients:

crust:

1 cup shredded coconut

2 cups almond flour

1 tsp ceylon cinnamon

1/2 tsp sea salt
(hey if you're like me and you are a fiend for black pepper you can add some to this too)
1 tsp ground vanilla

1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil

1/4 cup coconut sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

directions:

crust:

1. combine the ingredients for the crust. Use a fork. Add the liquid last after everything else has been successfully mixed together

2. in a greased glass 8 x 11 pan: line with parchment and firmly press 2/3 - 3/4 of the mixture, reserving 1/4 - 1/3 as topping

directions:

date filling:

1. combine the chopped dates, lemon juice, vanilla, sea salt, black pepper and water in a pot and simmer for 5 minutes or until the dates are nice and soft and melty.

directions:

combining the two:

preheat the oven to 300

2. evenly spread the date mixture onto the pressed in crust from above

3. sprinkle the date mixture with the crumbly remains of the crust ingredients

4. bake at 300 for 60 minutes

parchment lined and greased 2L baking dish

the crust pressed in

date filling spread on the crust

remaining crust ingredients crumbled on top

after baking

plated with lemon coconut milk ice cream