Deprived Brits Have No Date Squares! One Woman’s Quest to Challenge Carleton Place Ladies

I have a bestie in the UK that is following our Carleton Place Blog. Victoria is going to add some neat tidbits here and there comparing her country and ours. Last week she contributed her Easter Flower pictures

Here is how she describes where she lives.

Well, I live in Ely (pronounced to rhyme with “wheelie”) but there is also an Ely in Wales, so I always write it as “Ely, Cambridgeshire”, or I suppose you could call it “Ely, England” just to avoid any confusion. It’s a beautiful city just north of Cambridge (one hour from London) with its cathedral dating back to the 11th century being its highlight.This is going to be great fun!

Well, there are no Nanaimo Bars or Date Squares in England. She became intrigued so she made her own after I posted the recipes.

Linda, as promised, here are the results of my first attempt at Canadian baking! I present to you “Date Squares” and “Nanaimo Bars”. I’ve just had a look at some photos to see how closely they resemble the real deal and I don’t think they’re too bad for my first attempt, but as a real life Canadian, I’ll let you be the judge…Be kind lol x

After she posted the pictures the Facebook comments began from her fellow Brits. It seems there are NO Graham Crackers there either so she had to substitute.

Victoria Norris— I had to substitute a couple of things. Digestive biscuits are the closest we have to Graham Crackers here, but I had some wholemeal Jacobs crackers for cheese left over in the tin from Christmas so I just used those lol. I also used coconut palm sugar instead of refined sugar and it worked fine – plenty sweet enough.

Her friend who also resided in England said:

Jo– I remember having Date Slice at school with custard. Wonder if it’s the same. What are the Nanaimo bars?

Victoria– They’re both Canadian recipes – the Date Squares are sometimes called “Matrimonial Bars” and yes, they are not too dissimilar to what we had a school I don’t think, but the Nanaimo Bars are really unique – I can’t actually think of anything else that we have here that tastes like them.

I think she did a fantastic job.. Let’s make her an honoury Canadian!