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.
Q
This is delicious. I used a Clementine instead of an orange, and old sugery pitted dates from Aldi that Joe doesn't particularly like. Also, I forgot the butter because I put the chunk in the freezer to make it cold and just plain forgot until later in the day. Didn't seem to matter.Baked in the meatloaf pan. wonderful!
Q