Thursday 29 March 2012

Date and Walnut loaf



This is my Date and Walnut loaf recipe. I found it fun to make, tasty and fairly easy but the best part was the SMELL when cooking. It FILLED the house! It's an old-fashioned, traditional British loaf that goes very, very well with a cup of tea!



There's the finished article - it didn't last long so I'm glad I took a couple of  pictures for posterity!

Ingredients

240g ) Medjool dates (pitted and halved)
310ml  water
100g dark brown sugar
80g butter (chopped up)
300g self-raising flour
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
2 eggs
100g roughly chopped walnut pieces

Method

Preheat the oven to 170c

Take a medium sized sacuepan and add the:
Dates
Water
Butter
Sugar

Put over a low heat and stir until all the sugar has dissolved.

Bring to the boil.

Turn the heat down and simmer the mixture for a couple of minutes.

Pour the mixture into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool for 15 minutes or so.

Whilst you're waiting for the mixture to cool,  brush a loaf tin (mine is a 10cm by 20cm tin) with a little melted butter.

Sieve the flour and spices into a separate bowl.

Lightly whisk the eggs.

Add the eggs to the (cooled) date mixture.

Give it a good stir.

Pour the date mixture into the flour/spice mix.

Use a wooden spoon to ensure it's thoroughly mixed.

Finally, add the walnuts and stir gently but thoroughly. If you are too vigorous, the walnuts will crumble to nothing.

Spoon the mixture into the greased loaf tin and bake in the centre of the oven for about an hour. I began testing mine with a skewer after about 50 minutes of baking. When the skewer comes out clean and the cake feels firm, it's ready to take out.

Turn the cake onto a wire rack and try to resist it for at least twenty minutes.

3 comments:

  1. Ah yes, that smell, it would certainly remind me of my Gran. You've inspired me! Best bit is, I'm sure the children wouldn't like it...!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hehe! No, it's definitely too grown up for the children! ;)

    ReplyDelete

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