Dates & Walnut Bars

I couldn’t wait to share this Recipe with you all. When I was a little child I used to participate in drawing and painting competitions. I also happened to participate in one of the drawing competitions conducted by Nestle group of companies. Even though I dint win any prize, after the participation they have been sending me so many little little stuff and few recipe books using the nestle products like the Nestle condensed milk and nestle cream. Those books contain few recipes but all are scrumptious with even more appealing pictures. Among those recipes was this Walnut and Date bar with a lip-smacking picture which made me drool every time I see them. But when I took the picture, first think that struck my mind was that it looked like a piece of granite that resembled one in our kitchen back home in Kerala. I was disappointed with the picture, but very pleased with the taste. I loved them so much that I just couldn’t wait to post.
Ingredients:
1½ cup Chopped Dates
½ tin x 397 sweetened condensed milk
2 tbs butter
(I used 1 tbs of sugar and 1 tbs of water instead)
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup grated coconut
3 cups biscuit crumbs (I used 18 pieces digestive biscuits crushed it in the processor)
50 g dark chocolate.

Preparation:
1. Heat a sauce pan on medium flame. Add in condensed milk, sugar, water, chopped dates, butter and stir well continuously until dates just turn soft. (About 7 minutes)
2. At this stage, remove the pan from heat and add in chopped walnuts, coconut and biscuit crumbs to make a firm mixture. Mix well thoroughly.
3. Press the mixture into a lightly greased medium size sponge tin.
4. Melt the chocolate in a medium bowl over a medium saucepan of containing a quarter of simmering watering, stirring it.
5. Drizzle the chocolate over the bars and refrigerate until set. Cut into 16-20 bars.

Notes:
1. The original recipe calls for 2 tbs of golden syrup or sugar syrup. I just added sugar and water. I never used golden syrup in my recipes and so don’t really know how it tastes.