Here’s a real change of pace, a blast from the past. I was visiting with my mom the other day, and she mentioned having just made some date nut bread according to my grandmother’s recipe. Now, IIRC, Grandmother never made this except around Christmas, and it was always a real treat. When she gave the recipe to my mom, well, that was a MAJOR gift. (Because she gave it to her straight :-)).
Here’s the recipe, with the minor modification by my mom of “canola oil” (cos Grandmother just used regular ole “vegetable oil” which coulda been anything–I know cos she let me help one year. *heh*) Olive oil works, too, in my experience. A couple of editorial comments based on my own experience (and watching Grandmother).
Grandmother’s Date Nut Bread
Ingredients:
1 C Finely Chopped Dates
1 C Flour
1 tsp Salt
1 C Water
2 TSP Canola Oil
1/2 C Nuts (your choice–Walnuts are good best)
3/4 C Sugar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
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Preheat the oven to 325 Degrees F
Cover and Cook Dates in water about 5 minutes [n.b.–bring juuust barely to a boil, then cover and simmer–ed].
Remove from heat and cool.
Put Flour, Salt, Sugar, Baking Soda in bowl – add Egg (beaten), Canola Oil and Vanilla
Blend – then Add the cooled Dates and Water.
Beat about 1 minute – Add Nuts.
Place in greased loaf pan.
Bake about 1 Hour at 325 Degrees F.
Cool, slice, eat. You’ll want to double the recipe and make two the next time.
Tracked back to the Christmas Alliance Headquarters, cos it’s one of my fav Christmastime memories… 🙂 And, Trackposted to Rightwing Guy, 123 Beta, The Cutting Edge, The HILL Chronicles, The Uncooperative Blogger ®, The World According to Carl, Stuck On Stupid, and Dumb Ox News, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
The recipe carnival is up and this recipe is in it. Thanks for entering!
http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2006/12/carnival-of-recipes.html
What was your grandmother’s heritage? Fruit and nut bread recipes are a traditional Christmas treat in many cultures, particularly the colder European countries. Witness the popularity of stollen via Germany, or of fruitcake (good fruitcake, mind you) via England.
B.–Good ole Southern U.S. Scots-Irish (n Welsh thrown in for good measure). Well, a goodly mix of “other” as well, given the amalgamation of early U.S. “Southern-pushing-West” folk she came from.
And to be honest, though she used walnuts most frequently, they had some wonderful pecan trees on their property (planted and nurtured by Grandfather) that supplied extended family with plenty of good nuts for a year’s worth of eating nearly every year I was a child, so they frequently made their way into this (and other dishes).