Date night

I bought a couple of packets of luscious Medjool dates to get me through my self-imposed sugar ban over Christmas - but the Quality Street got the better of me and the dates got left on the shelf. So I made them into these toothsome crumble bars:

Dates, butter, sugar, oats, flour

Date Crumble Bars

175g plain flour
175g oats
175g butter
50g brown sugar

Filling:
175g dates, stoned and chopped
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon clear honey

Heat the oven to 190/gas 5. Put the ingredients for the filling in a pan and simmer gently until the dates are soft. Whizz the flour with the butter and about half the oats until it reaches the fine breadcrumbs stage. Stir in the sugar and remaining oats (for textural reasons). Put half this mixture into an 18cm square tin and pat it down. Spread the filling over it, then top with the rest of the flour mixture. Spread it into an even layer and pat it down. Bake for 35-40 minutes, then cut up while cooling in the pan and remove when cold - or you will be left with more crumble than bar.

Pear and ginger cake with ginger glaze

Ginger - guaranteed to cure colds and keep you young. It also protects you from radiation if eaten daily. Apparently. (I wonder if they know that in Fukushima). Yet again, I seemed to have a glut of nearly-rotten pears which I just couldn't bear to throw away, so this recipe which used 2 (or 3, by the time I'd cut out the brown bits) was ideal.

Pear and ginger loaf cake

Pear and Ginger loaf cake

200g butter (unsalted preferable but not essential)
100g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Half a teaspoon ground ginger
200g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 pears, peeled and chopped
2 balls of stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped

Glaze: 3 tablespoons syrup from the ginger and 3 tablespoons light brown sugar

Heat oven to 160/gas 3. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs and vanilla gradually. Fold in the flour and baking powder and then the pears and ginger. Place the mixture in a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake for 60-70 minutes. Make the glaze by mixing together the syrup and the sugar, adding a half a teaspoon of water. Tip it over the cake and allow it to cool in the tin.

I had run out of self-raising flour so added an extra 3 teaspoons of baking powder to the recipe; and I used only half the amount of sugar - unintentionally - but you wouldn't know.

Talking of gluts, I have a few apples to use up...

... all suggestions gratefully received