Delightfully chewy and packed with wholesome add-ins, these date nut bars are the perfect bite-sized sweet treat.

(RECIPE VIDEO COMING SOON)!

I was swimming in walnuts.

After using them in two cookie recipes and two batches of my mushroom paté over the holidays, I still had two pounds left over. What was I thinking buying so much? I normally store nuts in the freezer to keep them from going rancid but I found a stash there, too. I like to use fresh ingredients when sharing with friends and family so my surplus gave me the perfect excuse to get in some post-holiday baking.

Besides walnuts I also had medjool dates, coconut and chocolate chips to use up so date nut bars were the first thing that came to mind . I already have these no-bake Chocolate Date-Nut Bars in the recipe box but there’s always room for a new sweet treat, I think.

This baked version of date nut bars was inspired by a 1917 recipe from Good Housekeeping Magazine. I stumbled upon it in this Reddit baking thread and always chuffed to find vintage recipes (in 1917 the bars were called Chinese Chews), I had to try it.

The original recipe was straightforward: walnuts, dates, eggs, sugar and flour. I probably should have first tried the recipe as written–because that is the smart thing to do–but being a bit of a recipe rebel and always prone to cutting the sugar when I can, I made changes. The results of my modifications–less sugar, more flour–were fine but not special. The bars were a touch bready and still a little sweet…at least reducing the sugar was a step in the right direction.

For my succeeding trials, I reduced both the sugar and flour amounts further, packed on the dates and added unsweetened coconut and chocolate chips (again, wanted to use the surplus stock). With the additional dates and chocolate chips, the net reduction on sugar was probably zero but still, my husband and I were very pleased with the results.

These Coconut Chocolate Chip Date Nut Bars are delightfully chewy and not too sweet. You can even cut the sweetness further by omitting the powdered sugar. The unsweetened coconut provides another layer of flavor and texture and the chocolate chips give them something extra. The dates and walnuts are still the star but all the ingredients together have been making our taste buds sing. We have shared them with friends who have responded with positive feedback. Another bonus: this recipe is quite easy to put together and the bars keep for days…if they even last that long, that is.

Notes:

1. For the original Good Housekeeping recipe, please click here.
2. The first version I tried with my modifications followed the above original recipe but increased flour to 1 cup and reduced sugar to 3/4 cup.
3. For the published recipe here, I suggest using the weight measurements as they will yield the most consistent results. I really packed the dates so my 1 cup of dates is most likely much more than in the original recipe.