Date and Nut Bread

As my memory has it, both my grandmothers and an aunt made Date &
Nut Bread whenever I visited. It was as much a staple as the jar of
schmaltz in the refrigerator. I hadn't eaten it in probably 30 years
until I got a urge to visit my past one rainy afternoon.
The recipe below has been modified from "The New McCall's Cook Book"
1973 edition. One of my three cookbooks. It makes a wonderful Date &
Nut Bread, very close to my grandmother's, but not exact.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of pitted dates - I use 1"-2" Majools. Two 12-oz containers are plenty.
• 2 cups of chopped walnuts
• 2 cups of boiling water
• 3 cups of All Purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1-1/4 cups of dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla

Process

• Cut the dates into chunks about the size of a dime. I quarter them.
  Chop the walnuts - don't powder them, but get them chopped up good. Dump
  them both in a big mixing bowl and pour the boiling water over them.
  Stir and then cover the bowl with foil or a big plate. Let it sit for 10
  minutes and then let it sit until cool - at least another 30 minutes.
• Sift the flour and baking soda and set it aside.
• Cream the butter with the brown sugar. Then mix in the eggs and
  the vanilla (use the good stuff!) When the butter is completely mixed
  add this to the date and nut mixture and mix it well with a wood spoon.
• Add in the flour mixture and beat with the wood spoon until well combined.
• Split the batter between 2 greased 9x5 meatloaf pans and bake
  at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out
  clean.

pinkmountain, try King Arthur Flour's site. I seem to recall someone mentioning a date nut bread recipe from them they thought was good.

Fawridge that was almost the exact recipe I followed except I didn't boil the walnuts along with the dates and my recipe called for less dates. DH says mine is not moist and dense like his grandmother's. I may have used too much baking soda.

I think I loved date and but bread when I was a kid. Did my mother bake it in a big bean can? Or was that a different kind of bread?. It was very dark and moist, and loaded with goodies. We ate it warm from the oven, or room temp slathered in butter. Mmmm, it was delicious!

sheesh, what you mentioned makes me think of Boston Brown Bread, but I'm not sure if/how it differs from date nut bread

I have a recipe for Boston brown bread that has dates and raisins. But I don't want to fuss with the cans . . .

Chloebud, you're correct. That's what Mom called it, and I forgot. Thank you. I'm off to lookup a recipe now. Thanks again.

You have to boil the nuts and dates to keep the bread moist.

I've just read several recipes. I had no idea Mom steamed the bread. Looking forward to making this.

Sheesh, I remember my mother making date nut bread in a can, as you remembered. I have no idea about her recipe, but I remember having to take the bottom of the can off and push the bread out of the can.

How do you steam it?

Yes, blubird, that's what we did. And sometimes we'd put cream cheese on it. Oh, I'm pining for it.

Lpink, it looks like you can steam it in a tall, deep, covered pot on top of the stove, or you can do it in the oven in a Bain Marie. I don't know what my mother did, but knowing my mom, I think she would have steamed it . Blubird, do you know what your mom did?

I don't have recipes, but my mom made both date nut bread and Boston Brown Bread and they were not anything alike. Her date nut bread was baked in a loaf pan and was dark and sticky and crumbly, and she steamed BBB in a can, but the BBB was much darker and had lots of molasses and no additions like nuts or dates. It was used primarily as a sandwich bread, especially for cream cheese spreads. And yes, the BBB was steamed.

I have an excellent recipe for date nut bread - dark, rich and very moist. It is from a cookbook that came with my very first food processor maybe 25 years ago. (As an aside, I have tried many recipes from this cookbook, including all their quick breads, and they are all great. Their banana bread recipe is the only one I use!!) It does have one unsual ingredient...a small chopped orange....but it adds something important so I would not be inclined to omit.

1c chopped, pitted dates

3/4c boiling water

1tsp baking soda

1 small orange, seeded and cut into 6 pieces (leave skin on)

1 1/2c AP flour

1c coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

3/4c sugar

2 eggs

2 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into 4 pieces

1tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F and grease and flour 9x5 loaf pan. Combine dates, boiling water and baking soda in small bowl and set aside. Position knife blade in processor and add orange pieces, pulsing to chop...about 15 seconds. Add all the rest of the ingredients to the processor and 1/2 of the date mixture and process to mix well....maybe 5-10 seconds. Add remaining date mixture and process another 15 seconds or until thoroughly blended. Do not overmix! Pour into loaf pan and bake 55-60 minutes.

I'm sure you can adapt the recipe if you do not have a food processor but it is extremely fast and easy to prepare if you do.

Thanks, writersblock, maybe I have to make both! Times like this are when I really miss having a houseful of kids around, so hub and I won't eat it all :-/

Mom must've made steamed BBB, so that's what I'll make first.

Do any of you chase recipes from childhood like I do? Seems the tastes in my memory are often impossible to duplicate.

You posted while I was typing and retyping, gardengirl. As it happens, I have the ingredients for your recipe, but no molasses or appropriate can for the BBB, so date and nut bread it is! Thanks!

Do any of you chase recipes from childhood like I do?

Oh, yes. It just happens that I didn't love either of these all that much. But I still have my mom's old recipe collection and spend time sifting through that when my SIL emails to say that my brother has asked for this thing or that thing that she doesn't normally make.

Enjoy the date nut bread!

Gardengal, that is my "go to" date nut bread recipe and I used to make it in the blender before I got a food processor. I often make it for Christmas. It doesn't come out that dark though. But it is one of my best recipes. I've had that recipe since high school, back in the 70's. Always amazes people that grinding up a whole orange makes such great bread! Maybe I need to get hubs started loving my date nut bread instead of waxing poetic about his grandmothers. But he's so conservative he might say, "This is delicious but not like my grandmother's though." (Note: his kids have nicknamed him "dark cloud.")

Today the date nut bread I made was noticeably more moist than it was yesterday when it came out of the oven. Not sure why. The recipe I used called for one weird thing, baking it in a 400 degree oven for 15 min. and then turning the heat down to 350 and baking for 45 more minutes. I've never seen that technique mentioned with a quick bread. So my bread might have been slightly overcooked too. I'm wondering if the lower temps gives the flour more time to "hydrate" if that is actually a thing. Also my recipe only called for one egg, and our eggs were kind of small.

I was wondering about using a bain marie and just doing my Boston brown
bread in a loaf pan. The recipe I have calls for dates and raisins and I
think is all wheat flour so definitely not traditional.

this recipe is a keeper. THAnks, gardengal.

Thank also to fawnridge (ricky). Your recipe sounds delicious too. I'm glad I made the smaller recipe, or hub and I would have eaten half of your recipe, too! Not good.

Look up Angela Landsbury(or Landsberry)'s recipe. It's out of this world!

Um, maybe you should .....post them all? You know, as a public service? No seriously, this is really good. I've already pasted it into my files.

I know what you mean. I have a delicious coffee cake recipe from my kitchen aid mixer that we love, and the best pancake recipe came with the pots and pans set that I bought from the man I babysat for in 1963! Still using the recipe and the pots and pans!

Thanks again, gardengal.

Here's the recipe I made. I would definitely make it again, perhaps with some adjustments to the baking time and not using so much baking soda. I might experiment with using a ban marie too. It came out of "An Apple A Day: Vegetarian Cooking by Doctor's Wives." which was published by the Woman's Auxiliary to the Alumni Association of Loma Linda University School of Medicine.

Date Nut Bred from Mrs. Ezra Richards

1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar (I used all dark brown sugar)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. lemon extract (I used 1/4 cup candied citron peels as I have some and am trying to use them up)
1 egg
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp. salt (I used 1/4 tsp.)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup hot water
1 tsp. soda (I used 1.5 tsp. but I think that was a mistake)
(I added 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice)

Combine shortening, sugar, vanilla, lemon extract, and egg, then flour and salt. Mix well. (I creamed the sugar, eggs and butter and then combined the flour with the salt and chopped walnuts in a separate bowl). Cook and cool the dates and walnuts with the water (I just did the dates and the candied citron peel). Add the soda to the cooled dates and then combine them with the creamed shortening and flour mixture. Put into an oiled and floured loaf pan. (I used 9x5 one). Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 min. and then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 45 min. longer. (I don't think this is necessary. I would bake the whole time at 350 which is what most quick breads call for.)

This was my "go to" date recipe, but not what my husband asked for.

Harvest Date Cake
Makes 12 servings. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. in a 9" square greased and floured pan.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
(Combine dry ingredients.)
1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
(Cream/mix together wet ingredients)
1 cup milk
1 cup cut up date pieces

Add wet ingredients to flour mixture alternately with milk. Stir in dates. Add batter to pan. Top with topping. Bake as directed at top of recipe.

Topping
(Mix together)
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1/4 cup chopped nuts
1 TBLSP brown sugar

Here's the one I'm going to try next. I know it is not traditional. I'm not going to use the cans since I don't think they are necessary if you're not steaming, which this recipe does not call for. It makes a lot so I'm going to halve the recipe

Boston Brown Bread from Americanprofile.com

6 (14-15 oz.) empty clean tin cans, coated with cooking spray
1 lb. chopped dates
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups boiling water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat the insides of the cans with cooking spray.
Combine dates and baking soda in a bowl. Pour boiling water over the dates and let stand to cool at least 5 min.
Combine sugar, shortening and eggs in a large bowl. Using a mixer, beat at med. high speed until creamy. Add date mixture and flour and stir until well blended. Add nuts and raisins, mix well.

Fill cans about 2/3 full with batter. Bake 1 - 1.25 hours, until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in cans on a rack for 15 min. Remove bread from pans to cool completely.

Makes six loaves with six servings each.
170 calories per serving. 5g. fat, 3 g. protein, 32g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, 75 mg. sodium.

Sheesh, I gave a really vague recollection of my mother steaming her bread in a pot. We always lived in apartments and had crummy stoves. My mother mixed everything by hand, too; she never owned an electric mixer and certainly no KitchenAid or food processor. These recipes all look fabulous. Now I have to buy dates.

Yeah, I'm gonna see if I have a pot big enough to hold my bread pan. I just might be able to fit it in my canning pot. I think that's the main reason BBB is done in cans, they fit upright in the steamer.