Date loaf

[redsnake05]

I love loaves, and am always on a quest to find good, exciting recipes for them. This is my most recent favourite, incorporating delicious dates. It is quite sweet (this is the original recipe, but I always cut back the sugar), and tends to be sensitive to burning on the bottom so the tin definitely needs lining.

Ingredients

250g pitted dates
1tsp baking soda
60g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar (I use demerara sugar for extra caramel-ish taste)
3 Tbsp golden syrup (substitute dark corn syrup, invert syrup, or, at a pinch, honey)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
1 tsp ground ginger (or use allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves or some combination of such)
Chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C and line a 10 x 22cm loaf pan.
Place dates, baking soda, and 1 cup water in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes or until dates are soft and most of the liquid has gone. Remove from heat and stir in butter, sugar and golden syrup. Leave to cool for ten minutes.
Stir in egg, then fold in flour, baking powder and spices. Fold in chopped nuts and spread into pan.
Bake for 75 mins or until a skewer comes out clean (my oven is fast, and it usually takes 60 mins, so check frequently)


Serve warm, with creme fraiche or mascarpone; cold in classic buttered slices, or toast up for extra deliciousness.

Comments

[st_aurafina]

This sounds awesome! Can't wait to try it.

[redsnake05]

I hope it turns out well for you and tastes as delicious as my last attempt.

[st_aurafina]

Just wanted to let you know that this has become one of our favourites - made it again this weekend, and it came out delicious as always.

[redsnake05]

I am so glad you use the recipe and enjoy it, and am glad you commented tonight too. I couldn't find the hard copy of this recipe and had no idea where to start looking, completely forgetting that I had posted it here! I was about to fall back on another, vastly inferior date loaf recipe. Thank you for saving me with your serendipitous comment!

[st_aurafina]

Oh, yay! Celebrations all around, then! Glad to have helped!

[redsnake05]

I just made it tonight and it smells delicious - much better than the other recipe I had found lurking in my recipe storage (ie, that pile of old magazines, food-stained printouts, and random jottings on scrap paper (some in crayon!) that live on the corner of one bench). Thanks so much!

[aquinasprime]

Sounds yummy. I'll have to try it (once I've converted the measurements to a format I traditionally work with).

[redsnake05]

I hope it works for you. I know what you mean about measurements - where I live, you can get three different systems all in the same recipe.

[drgaellon]

Should the dates be chopped, or left whole?

[redsnake05]

I used whole pitted dates, and they kind of mostly disintegrated in the water into a thick paste. Chopped would work too, but you don't need to go to all that effort.