Quick Bread Recipe - Date Nut Bread

Did any of you follow my suggestion to see what was in season in your supermarket? I did yesterday, and I found locally grown, red ripe strawberries. The strawberry packages were on sale, two 32-oz. packages for $5.00 total, which was a savings of over $7.00. Today I will be making home made strawberry jams and some strawberry pies. The pie lessons will be in the future. For now, as promised, here are a couple of quick bread recipes, starting with a basic, Date Nut Bread.

Date Nut Bread

Ingredients

• 4 cups pitted dates, chopped
• 2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 3/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour (I recommend an unbleached flour)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar Note: When measuring brown sugar, whether light or dark, always pack down firmly into measuring cup.
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract Note: for an added variation, try substituting 1 tsp. brandy or rum, either the real thing or the extract.

Directions

1. Place the chopped dates into a bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Set aside to cool.
2. Grease and flour two standard sized loaf pans (generally 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" x 2 1/2").
3. Sift flour with baking soda and salt. Set aside. Note: For those of you new to baking, there are inexpensive hand held sifters on the market, any of which are satisfactory.
4. Preheat oven to 350F. Note: Those of you in Europe or Asia, please make the appropriate conversion to Centigrade.
5. In large bowl, with electric mixer at high speed, beat butter with sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
6. Add cooled date mixture and mix well.
7. Add fluor mixture and beat slowly until well combined.
8. Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing between the two loaf pans.
9. Bake about 1 hour and 10 min., or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans and let cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap, zip lock bags, etc., then in aluminum foil, and store overnight. Serve the next day, or freeze for later use.

Next post this afternoon: Another quick bread recipe. In the meantitme, I am off to making the Strawberry Jam!