Date and Nut Bread

Recently I was having a conversation with my boss about Date and Nut bread. It brought back childhood memories of the moist, dense crumb of Thomas’ Date Nut Bread. 

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​My boss recalls a German recipe with molasses. I mentioned I had a recipe from my husband’s great grandmother and offered to bake her a loaf.
 
For the recipe you’ll need chopped dates, chopped nuts, baking soda, salt, shortening (Crisco), boiling water, eggs, vanilla and all-purpose flour. The unusual part of this recipe is having the first six ingredients (up to boiling water), mixed together and sitting for 15 minutes. You’ll see that the water will soften the dates and extracted the color into the batter. Although the recipe calls for two small loaf pans, I could have easily used a 2-1/2-inch x 5-inch x 9-inch loaf pan and adjusted the baking time.
 
The bread was delicious! It was such a nice change of pace. It was moist, had a light crumb, not dense like Thomas’. It was enjoyable to eat without any butter or cream cheese.
 
If you’re looking for a quick bread to make at home, this may be the one for you!

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Date and Nut Bread
From the recipe box of Grandma Allen/Nancy R. Walsifer

3/4 cup Chopped dates
1-cup chopped nuts
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cups boiling water
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 
Preheat oven to 350°
 
Combine nuts, dates, baking soda and salt in bowl. Add shortening and boiling water. Let stand 15 minutes. Stir to blend. Beat eggs slightly; add vanilla, sugar and flour to date mixture. Grease and flour 2 pans, 7-1/2-inches x 3-1/2-inches x 2-1/4-inches.
 
Bake 40 minutes
 
Notes: I used walnuts for the recipe. I used one pan close to the size noted above and the bread came approximately 1-1/4” high. If want a taller bread, put batter in one pan and check for doneness after 40 minutes; add more time if needed. I suggest checking in 5–7-minute increments so the bread doesn’t over bake.  

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