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Recipe for Date Bread (One Loaf)
2 cups flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup milk or water 1 egg 1/2 lb. dates (stoned and cut in pieces) Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add milk, egg slightly beaten and dates. Turn into a greased pan and bake 1 hour in a moderate (350 degrees) oven.
A plain quick bread of the fat-free type once common for tea sandwiches: it slices thin without crumbling and improves overnight. Two things need attention before you start — the batter is much stiffer than a modern quick bread, and the leavening is generous by current standards.
- The batter will look wrongTwo cups of flour to three-quarters of a cup of liquid gives a thick, sticky dough rather than a pourable batter, and there is no butter or oil at all. Spread it into the pan with a wet spatula; do not thin it, or the loaf will sink around the dates.
- Baking powderFour teaspoons to two cups of flour is about double the usual modern rate. With current double-acting powder, expect a coarse, open crumb and possibly a faint soapy note. Many cooks will prefer 2 to 3 teaspoons.
- DatesHalf a pound is roughly 1 1/3 cups once pitted and chopped — about 30 whole Deglet Noor or about 10 large Medjool. Pitted dates are widely available, so the stoning step can often be skipped. Toss the pieces in a spoonful of the measured flour so they separate in the dough.
- OvenThe recipe gives the number as well as the term: a moderate oven, 350F. Use the middle rack.
- Pan and timingThe recipe specifies only 'a greased pan'; a standard 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan suits this quantity. Start testing at 45 minutes with a skewer in the centre; a fat-free loaf this size is often done before the full hour, and overbaking dries it badly.
- Milk or waterThe choice is not indifferent. Milk gives a softer crumb and darker crust; water gives a firmer, more bread-like slice that holds up better under butter or cream cheese.
- Cooling and yieldTurn out onto a rack and cool completely — cutting warm gives gummy slices. One loaf yields 12 to 14 slices. Wrapped and left a day, it slices thinner and cleanly.