• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Umami Days

Umami Days

Meaty with a dash of veggies

  • Recipes
    • By meal
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / dinner
      • Snacks
    • By main ingredient
      • Poultry
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By carb
      • Rice
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • Kitchen how-tos
    • Cooking ingredients
    • Kitchen tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Newsletter
  • Recipes
    • By meal
      • Breakfast
      • Lunch / dinner
      • Snacks
    • By main ingredient
      • Poultry
      • Meat
      • Seafood
      • Eggs
      • Mushrooms
      • Tofu
      • Vegetables
    • By carb
      • Rice
      • Noodles
      • Bread
  • Kitchen
    • Kitchen how-tos
    • Cooking ingredients
    • Kitchen tools
  • Food Tales
    • Edible Garden
    • Dining
  • Newsletter

Food for the gods

12.26.2021 (Updated: 11.21.2024) in Cookie bars, Holiday sweets

Food for the gods is best described as butterscotch (or blondies) squares or bars baked with Medjool dates and walnuts. The pastry hails from the Philippines where it traditionally makes an appearance during the Christmas season.

Food for the gods (butterscotch brownies with dates and nuts)

Where does the pastry get its name? Sheer indulgence, I suppose. Butterscotch squares are lovely by themselves but add dates and they become extra chewy. Add nuts and the crunchiness adds just the perfect contrast to the chewy dates.

Although butterscotch squares are ubiquitous especially in sugar-growing regions in the Philippines, dates and walnuts are pricey imported items. Hence, food for the gods is regarded as a special occasion treat.

You’ll find so many recipes for food for the gods on the web, and many substitute raisins and cashew nuts for the Medjool dates and walnuts. While substituting much cheaper raisins and cashew nuts will definitely bring down the cost, the cookie squares will not acquire the desirable texture of real food for the gods.

Dates

Medjool dates are palm dates. You will find them in Middle Eastern and South Asian groceries and food shops. They are available dried — pitted or unpitted. If only unpitted dates are available, simply slit each one to press out the seed at the center. There is nothing else to remove and discard. Chop or cut as you would pitted dates.

Chopped dates tossed in flour

Tossing the dates and walnuts with a little flour before they are added to the batter helps prevent them from sinking during baking.

Chopped walnuts tossed in flour

The rest of the steps is the same as making butterscotch brownies.

Mixing brown sugar with melted butter

Mix melted butter and brown sugar. It has to be brown sugar, not white, fot two reasons. Brown sugar gives this sweet a distinctive chewiness. It also gives it a lovely color.

Adding eggs to brown sugar and butter

Then, you add eggs. Whole large eggs.

Adding flour, baking powder and salt to brown sugar, butter and eggs

Flour, baking powder and salt are whisked together before they are added to the butter-sugar-eggs mixture.

Adding dates and walnuts to butterscoth batter

The floured dates and walnuts are folded in to finish the batter.

Food for the gods before baking

And the batter is transferred to a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Food for the gods before and after baking

We like to top the batter with reserved nuts and dates before baking. Purely for optics, so that’s optional.

Food for the gods stacked on white plate
Food for the gods
Connie Veneracion
Unbelievably rich in texture and, when done right, is not cloyingly sweet. Moist and chewy at the center but dry on top, they can be individually wrapped and placed in a box or a pouch and given away as a very personal and special Christmas gift.
Decorating the top with reserved dates and walnuts before baking is completely optional.
Food for the gods stores well in the fridge or freezer. Arrange in layers separated with parchment paper in a covered container. Thaw (or warm) to room temperature before serving.
Prep Time 10 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Total Time 40 minutes mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine Filipino
Servings 16 two-inch squares

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup chopped pitted dates
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour plus two teaspoons
  • 1 cup toasted chopped walnuts
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 ½ cups dark brown sugar loosely packed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350F.
  • Put the butter in a microwavable bowl and heat for 30 seconds or just until melted, and leave to cool a bit.
  • Line the bottom and sides of an 8" x 8" baking pan with parchment paper.
  • Place the chopped dates in a bowl, add a teaspoon of flour and toss to coat each piece.
  • Place the walnuts in another bowl, add a teaspoon of flour and toss to coat every piece.
  • Scrape the melted butter into a mixing bowl, add the brown sugar and mix until of uniform consistency.
  • Add the eggs and mix until no egg-y streak is visible.
  • In another mixing bowl, whisk the remaining flour, baking powder and salt.
  • Add to the sugar mixture and mix just until fully blended.
  • Fold in the dates and walnuts.
  • Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out to spread evenly.
  • Bake at 350F for 25 minutes, then turn off the oven but leave the pan inside for another five minutes.
  • Cool the uncut food for the gods in the pan until just warm.
  • Invert on a rack, peel off the parchment paper then invert on a cutting board.
  • Cut the food for the gods into 16 two-inch squares.
Pin Send Print

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, the blog owner earns commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.

In the spotlight

Poached chicken Hainanese-style

Poached chicken Hainanese-style

Oxtail and vegetable sour soup (sinigang na buntot ng baka)

Slow cooker oxtail sinigang with bilimbi (kamias)

Bacon asparagus puff pastry spirals

Bacon asparagus puff pastry spirals

Spanish oxtail stew

Spanish oxtail stew

Shrimp spring rolls

Hungry for more?

Subscribe to the newsletter to get the latest posts in your inbox.

No spam. Read the privacy policy.

More Sweets

Baked Apple Spring Rolls Drizzled with Melted Dark Chocolate

Baked apple spring rolls

Almond polvoron (gluten-free)

Almond and pecan polvoron

Crepes with Apples and Salted Caramel

Crepes with apples and salted caramel

Tarte Tatin topped with whipped cream

Tarte Tatin (upside-down apple tart)

Sidebar

Connie Veneracion, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Home cook and writer by passion, photographer by necessity, and good food, coffee and wine lover forever. I write recipes, cooking tips and food stories. No AI is used in creating content for this blog.

More about me and Umami Days.

  • About
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • No AI
  • Contact

Created by a human for humans · Copyright © 2025 Connie Veneracion · All Rights Reserved