Mom Carnes Hawaiian Holiday Bars: Betty Crocker's Lost Recipe and One Stubborn Baking Mystery

A date-and-pineapple escape to the islands with sunshine, coconut, and Christmas sweetness in every crumbly, delicious spoonful

Maybe you’re reading this from somewhere cold, where December means wool socks and frost on the windows and the kind of Christmas that shows up in holiday movies. Or maybe you’re here in California, where the citrus trees are ripening, and you can eat your Christmas cookies outside in shirtsleeves. Either way, these Hawaiian Holiday Bars taste of somewhere warm and bright, whether that’s your actual backyard or the tropical escape you’re dreaming about while the snow piles up.

I’ve been chasing my great grandma’s recipe for months now. Three attempts, three beautiful failures. Each time, the promise of golden-topped bars dissolves into something else entirely - a crumbly, fruit-studded heap that tastes absolutely wonderful but refuses to hold its shape. The base finally cooperated on my last attempt, firming up as it should. But the topping? It slid right off in a sweet, sandy avalanche, leaving me with what I can only describe as a deconstructed bar situation. Here’s the thing: sometimes you eat dessert with a spoon instead of your fingers, and the world keeps spinning.

My real discovery came when I finally cracked the code on this handwritten recipe tucked into Helen’s cookbook. It’s actually an adaptation of Betty Crocker’s legendary Date Bar - the one that came in a box, the one people mourned when it was discontinued. I found someone on Reddit sharing their grandmother’s version, which led me down a rabbit hole of vintage recipe forums and sad letters to Betty Crocker headquarters. Turns out, the recipe the company eventually published in their cookbook wasn’t quite the same as what people remembered from the box, which explains why so many home bakers have been trying to reverse-engineer the original for decades.

What Helen did was take that already treasured base and give it an island treatment - juicy crushed pineapple folding into the date mixture, flaked coconut adding tropical crunch, brown sugar deepening into molasses-dark notes that somehow taste like both Christmas spice and beach vacation.

I’m making these with dates from right here in the Coachella Valley - the same desert that’s been growing some of the world’s finest dates since the early 1900s, when agricultural pioneers figured out that our climate mirrors the Middle Eastern oases where date palms have thrived for millennia. There’s something poetic about Helen’s Midwest farm-country recipe finding its way to my California kitchen, where I can walk over to a date farm and come home with a fruit that is plump, amber-dark, and sweet as honey.

Today I’m sharing both versions of Helen’s ambitious Hawaiian remix and the tried-and-true Betty Crocker original. The Betty Crocker recipe works - it cuts into neat squares, it holds together, it does all the things bars are supposed to do. If you want to add Helen’s pineapple and coconut twist (and I think you should), mix them into the filling, and you’ll have something genuinely special.

As for the exact proportions? I’m still working on it. But even in its current spoonable form, with dates, pineapples, and coconut tumbling together in a bowl, it tastes like sunshine and love and my grandmother’s particular brand of fearless kitchen experimentation. Sometimes the recipes don’t work exactly as written. Sometimes you love your grandma anyway, maybe even a little more because of it.

Helen’s Hawaiian Holiday Bars

Serves: 24 | Prep: 30 minutes | Bake: 35 minutes

Equipment

• Measuring cups & spoons

• Chef’s knife and cutting board (if dates aren’t pitted)

• Food processor

• Heavy-bottomed saucepan

• Sifter

• Stand mixer or hand mixer

• 10 x 14-inch jelly roll pan

• Offset spatula

Ingredients

Bars

• 3/4 cup shortening

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 2 1/4 cups oats (quick cooking or rolled)

Filling

• 1 lb pitted dates

• 1 (15 oz) can freshly crushed pineapple with juice (or frozen pineapple, thawed)

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease your jelly roll pan and set it aside.

2. Process dates and pineapple (if frozen) in a food processor until chopped to bite-sized pieces. Transfer to a heavy-bottomed saucepan with the sugar. Cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens to the consistency of jam and firms up when you run a spoon along the back of it. Remove from the heat, stir in the coconut, and let cool completely.

3. While the filling cools, sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir in oats and set aside.

4. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream the shortening and brown sugar for 5-8 minutes, until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl every 2-3 minutes.

5. Add dry ingredients to shortening mixture in thirds, mixing on low speed just until incorporated after each addition. The mixture should be crumbly.

6. Press half the crumb mixture firmly into the prepared pan in an even 1/2-inch layer. Bake for 10 minutes to set the base. Remove and let cool slightly.

7. Spread the cooled filling evenly over the par-baked base using an offset spatula. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the filling and press gently to flatten.

8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned. Cool in a pan on a wire rack. While still warm, cut into 24 squares.

Notes & Troubleshooting

This recipe is stubborn. Despite multiple attempts, the topping tends to slide off the filling rather than form bars. It’s absolutely delicious eaten with a spoon. Still, if you want reliable, sliceable bars, I recommend using the Betty Crocker version below and adding the pineapple and coconut to that filling.

If you’re determined to make Helen’s version work:

• Start with the filling and let it cool completely while you prep everything else. Otherwise, you’ll be waiting around.

• Chop those dates into small pieces before cooking; using whole or large pieces dramatically increases cooking time and may require hand-blending.

• The par-bake is crucial for creating a stable base that won’t shift when you spread the sticky filling.

• Consider a layered approach: Cook the dates with sugar separately, spread that layer, add a layer of drained crushed pineapple, sprinkle coconut on top, and add the final crumb layer.

• Temperature matters: some vintage ovens run cooler; 400ºF works better than the original 350ºF for achieving proper texture.

Helen's Hawaiian Holiday Bars

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Betty Crocker’s Date Bars

Serves: 36 | Prep: 30 minutes | Bake: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Filling

• 3 cups chopped pitted dates (1 lb)

• 1 1/2 cups water

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

Bars

• 1 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour

• 1 1/2 quick-cooking oats

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. In a 2-quart saucepan, cook filling ingredients over low heat about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Cool for 5 minutes.

2. Heat oven to 400ºF. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13x9-inch pan with shortening.

3. In a large bowl, stir brown sugar and butter until well mixed. Stir in flour, oats, baking soda, and salt until crumbly. Press half of the crumb mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan. Spread with filling. Top with the remaining crumb mixture, press lightly.

4. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until light brown. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack. Cut into 6 rows by 6 rows while warm.

Hawaiian Variation

To add Helen’s tropical twist to this reliable recipe, add 1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple and 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut to the date filling after it’s cooked and slightly cooled. This gives you the island flavors with the structural integrity of Betty Crocker’s Date Bars.

Betty Crocker’s Other Variations

Gewürztraminer: The honeyed sweetness of dates and tropical notes of pineapple and coconut are a natural pairing with Gewürztraminer. This white wine’s lychee and rose petal character complements the Middle Eastern heritage of dates, while its gentle spice notes harmonize with the molasses of brown sugar. Choose an off-dry style so it won’t compete with the bar’s sweetness while still refreshing between bites.

Mai Tai’s: Lean into the island spirit with a classic Mai Tai. The rum’s caramel notes echo the brown sugar, the orgeat syrup’s almond sweetness pairs well with the coconut, and the citrus cuts through the richness. It’s Christmas in the tropics in a glass, exactly where these bars want to take you.

While writing this post, I kept thinking about my friends and me at Tommy Bahama’s Grapefruit restaurant, frozen Mai Tais in hand, hibiscus flowers perched on the rim. Those drinks would be exceptional with these bars. The grapefruit’s tartness cuts through the date's sweetness, reminding you that Christmas can look a thousand different ways. Maybe you’re bundled up somewhere cold, warming your hands around a mug. Maybe you’re chilled from that frozen Mai Tai. Or maybe you’re stretched out on a lounge chair with ocean breezes, sipping off-dry Gewürztraminer while eating date bars with your fingers, or a spoon, because sometimes that’s just how it goes.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas, however you’re celebrating it. 🎄

Jen

Thank you for helping preserve these food stories. If this recipe stirred a memory, I’d love to hear it in the comments.