Date And Walnut Loaf
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ¾pound pitted dates
- 1½teaspoons baking soda
- 1½cups boiling water
- 1½cups, plus 3 tablespoons, flour
- ¼teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼teaspoon ground ginger
- 2tablespoons butter, at room temperature, plus butter for greasing a pan
- 1¼cups sugar
- 2small eggs, lightly beaten
- 1teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1½cups coarsely chopped or broken walnuts, preferably black walnuts although English walnuts may be used, preferably toasted (see note)
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Step 2
If the dates are not already chopped, chop them coarsely. There should be about two and one-half cups. Put the dates in a mixing bowl.
- Step 3
Combine the baking soda and boiling water. Blend. Pour the hot mixture over the dates.
- Step 4
Sift together the flour and spices and set aside.
- Step 5
Put the two tablespoons of butter and the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and blend. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- Step 6
Start beating on low speed while alternately adding the flour mixture and dates with their liquid. Add the walnuts and blend well.
- Step 7
Butter the inside of a standard size loaf pan measuring 9 by 5 by 2¾ inches. Pour in the batter and place in the oven. Bake about one hour and 10 minutes or until a straw or thin wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- To toast the walnuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Scatter the nuts over a baking sheet and bake until they are crisp and lightly brown, about 10 minutes.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I added about 1/2 tsp salt because I felt batter needed it to balance the sweetness.
Cover with buttered foil for a moist loaf
I followed this recipe exactly. Some salt would be welcome, but it is yummy. I made it in small foil loaf pans and gave them to neighbors. A nice addition to the Thanksgiving table.
Some minor changes yielded a gorgeous, darker loaf. Subbed light brown sugar for the white. Added a generous splash of dark rum and a pinch of salt. Used medjool dates because I had them on hand. Will make again.
You definitely should not forsake your bakers instinct and line the pan. I didn't and my cake stuck. Also it takes much longer than 1 hour 10 to cook. More like an hour and a half and still not cooked in the middle.
This is a really lovely, almost throwback recipe when my mom could only get quite hard blocks of dates for cooking in eastern Canada. I used Terra Delyssa dates from Costco with about the same results. Made as directed with the exception of the salt addition (thank you). Really great morning treat with a sliced orange.
The bread turned out wonderfully delicious! So flavorful and rich. I added 1/4 tsp salt based on a recommendation by another user, and reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup because the dates are so sweet on their own.
This is amazingly delicious! Biggest nice surprse: it’s not too sweet!
I added about 1/2 tsp salt because I felt batter needed it to balance the sweetness.
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