Dates and Oats Bread a la Housewife, MD

The first time I encountered a pudding made from Dates was when TJ and I had a dinner with his colleague at their abode. I enjoyed it so much with or without the glaze/ icing. From then on, I believe if I can make banana bread, you can put any fruit to any bread I am baking. By adding fruit as an ingredient, I guess you can munch on it with less guilt, or I guess not 😀 So I guess that’s where the inspiration came from in making my own.

There are are variety of dates bread in the internet like they put on seeds or nuts. But one thing I like in the various recipes I checked, was they didn’t add an egg. So it’s a positive for me to save additional cost in the grocery. Although I find nuts and seeds add to the texture and taste, I’ve been adding it to almost every pastries I make so I decided to add rolled oats instead, basing it from the raisin and oats cookies recipe.

One thing I also learned from making this recipe was, since Dates are naturally sweet, you can go easy with the sugar. Most would put 1 cup but in mine, I only put 1/2 cup raw sugar for my own liking. I recommend 3/4- 1 cup/s on your first make so the second time around you can adjust the sweetness level. The first time I made it, I strictly followed the recipe but I knew the second time I’m making it, I can go low with the level.

Dates are abundant here in the groceries in New South Wales, I am just not sure if there are readily available dates in the Philippines. In case there’s a chance to be more experimental, raisin or any prune- like fruits would also be applicable, I GUESS. Although I haven’t tried. Will update you if ever I make one. Another ingredient that can be adjusted depending on the availability of your pantry or fridge is, you can replace butter to a plant based one like olive spread. It would produce relatively the same moist and texture, well as for me. For the flour, I use self raising flour, but if there’s no available self raising flour in the groceries, here’s a link from Spruce eats and it’s so easy to make. You just have to double check the proportions depending on how much flour you need. All purpose flour, pinch of salt and baking powder, Voila!

These are my ingredients, not all ingredients though are included in the photo:

Actual Ingredients: 

1. 1 cup dates chopped
2. 3/4 cup raw sugar ( 1/2 to my liking- 1 cup for maximum sweetness level)
3. 1/4 cup softened butter
4. 1 cup boiling water
5. 1 3/4 cups self-raising flour sifted
6. 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
7. 2 tsp vanilla extract or essence
8. 1/3 cup rolled oats

Procedure:

1. Pre heat oven to 175ºC
2. grease a loaf pan with baking paper (I used a 11x 3.5 inch, or may use usual 9x 5 inch depends on what you have)
3. Place chopped dates in a large bowl, add the sugar and butter
4. Pour in the boiling water to the bowl and mix all ingredients until the butter has completely melted
5. Sift the flour, baking soda to the dates mixture and incorporate all ingredients
6. Add the vanilla essence and mix well then add the rolled oats and mix
7. Pour in the mixture to the loaf pan, evenly distributed
8. Bake at 175ºC for 40 minutes
9. Poke a toothpick at the centre just to check for any tugging of raw mixture. If none, let it cool down at room temperature
10. Share and Enjoy!

Here are photos for step by step procedure for the mixture (see the caption):

Dates in a bowl

Add sugar

add butter

add 1 cup boiling water

mix until butter has melted

sift the dry ingredients

mix wet and dry ingredients

add the vanilla

add the rolled oats

add the mixture in the loaf pan

this photo was taken on my first bake for the dates and oats bread so there’s no baking paper, but placing baking paper would help a lot. Bake at 175C for 40 minutes

Finished product

Cooking time: 55 minutes 

• Preparation: 15 minutes
• Baking: 40 minutes

Serves: 8-10 slices