Hard to say without snickering, but tasty — almost like a chichi poptart…
(Adapted from Betty Crocker Cooky Book, ©1963.)
Filling:
3-4 cups concord grapes, washed & stemmed
1T (or less) oil
Dash salt
1+ cup medjool dates, pitted & chopped
1/4 cup sugar
2T lemon juice
Separate the grape pulp from the skins. Put the pulp into a saucepan and heat over medium heat until they start to burst open. In the meantime, lightly coat the skins with the oil (I used melted bacon fat, olive or vegetable will do), place on a baking tray, very lightly salt and roast in a 400°F oven for a few minutes.
When the grape pulp is cooked, put it through a sieve. Get as much of the pulp as possible. Discard the seeds. Mix the pulp with the roasted grape skins, and put the grape mixture back into the saucepan with the dates, sugar and lemon juice. Cook this for a few minutes over medium-low heat until thickened. Let cool.
Crumb:
3/4 cup shortening (part butter — I used 1/2c shortening, 1/4c butter)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt (orignal called for 1t, which was too salty)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats (I used the thick-cut ones)
Heat oven to 400°F. Grease a 13x9x2 pan. Mix sugar & shortening together. Stir together flour, soda & salt, and then mix with shortening/sugar mixture. Stir in rolled oats.
Press half of the crumb mixture in the bottom of the pan. Spread the grape-date mixture evenly over the bottom layer. Distribute the rest of the crumbs over the top. Press them down a bit, or it’ll just be crumbs and fall off.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. While warm, cut into bars and remove from the pan.