Oat and Date bars

I like making brownies and bars. You bake them in a foil sling in an 8x8 or a 9x9 square pan. But I hate cutting them. This oat and date bar is no exception. It's impossible to cut without mashing the different layers and getting crumbs all over the place. I always wonder how the bakeries cut them so neatly. However these mashed-up bars are no less tasty.
I followed a recipe from Serious Eats. It's one of my main sources of recipes these days. ATK is my cooking bible. We have both the ATK cooking and baking books. The executive editor at Serious Eats, Kenji Alt, also used to work at ATK. So anyway, it's a simple recipe, see link above. I had to cut out the sugar called for the dates filling. I also cut down sugar in the oats layers by about half. The finished bars were still quite sweet for my taste. So if you're trying this, be sure to adjust the sugar level.