Desert or Dessert

If you are looking for me to hook you up, that’s not happening. I just say it as it is.

Though the types of Dates I’m talking about are a love connection made in Heaven too.

I first fell in love with Dates when we where living in Jeddah, KSA. My favorite time to eat Dates are when they are still green, tangy and leave a numb feeling in your mouth (see picture in the link above). Unripe not ripe that’s the way I like them.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like them ripe and sweet too and while living in the Kingdom often thought of Eve who is rumored to rest in Jeddah and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Could it be that a simple Date is what did us all in? So sweet, so melt in the mouth like and yet so simple?

I was reminded of how much I like Dates when I picked up an Iranian box of fresh Dates at the “Slow food” Messe (Exhibition) in Stuttgart last Friday.

There is no comparison to what you might get in a Grocery store. None what so ever. These where so fresh and ripe and sweet and ….(I could just go on and on) that it was a little bit of Heaven right here on Earth.

When I found this little treasure at the Exhibition I was so excited. I had just received my copy of The Modern Baker Thursday night and while flipping through the book The Date Walnut Bread on page 47 caught my eye. I knew that this was one of the first recipes out of this book that I wanted to make.

Now I had the main star in my hands and not even the missing Walnuts could stand between this woman and her Date Walnut Hazelnut Bread.

This is the second recipe that I baked from the Quick Bread section of “The Modern Baker” book.

To find out how others like this bread and others from “The Modern Baker” book you can read all about it here.

I will not post the recipe here since I will be blogging about all the recipes in the book over the next year or so and it would not be fair to the author to have all the recipes online in one place. However this recipe is very close to the one in the book.

This is the second recipe I baked from this book and I must say I am very much looking forward to the next recipe. Both this and the Cocoa Banana Muffins (Cupcake) are excellent and well worth alone getting the book.

Date Hazelnut Bread
The Modern Baker
Page 47

This bread came together very quick. That is if you forget about the hour long wait to soak the Dates in some Water and a bit of Butter.

By the time the hour was over my Dates had nearly disappeared.  I was left with pretty much a thick syrup. 

What surprised me with this recipe is how “friendly” this recipe actually is.

Only 1T of Butter (that’s all the fat that’s added), no milk just water, 2 eggs and 1.5 c sugar in addition to the dates (a lot), nuts and the dry ingredients. Not bad at all for a sweet treat.

The little snag I talked about earlier is that I had no Walnuts in the house but I always have Hazelnut here. Therefore I used Hazelnut and about 1/4 c of Almonds instead of the Walnut.

I am not a big fan of Vanilla flavor so I used real Vanilla and 1 tsp. of Rum instead.

 
                              
                               As for the taste? Can you say Y.U.M?