It’s Saturday 4th April 2020.
2020, is still happening, the living nightmare continues. D25 pandemic, D12 UK ‘lockdown’. I went for a walk with Nacho this afternoon, there is a lovely little park behind our flat. It is one of the parks of my childhood, so it’s always nice to visit and ‘re-live’ the past. But I also need to be very much in the present and fully live this new reality. I have never spent so much time appreciating the birdsong, Sun and gentle wind.
Beautiful blue skies and white fluffy clouds, the stuff of dreams
I decided that today was a perfect day for baking and using up the dates that have been lurking about in the fridge for ‘some time’. I found a very simple and easy recipe online and I altered by using only a 1/2 cup of sugar, adding 1/2 teaspoon each of ginger, clove and cinnamon powder and adding a handful of crushed mixed nuts (walnut, Brazilian, almond and cashew). The result is a soft, moist and comforting loaf
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped dates
- ¾ cup sugar (see notes)
- 60g (3 tablespoons) butter
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1½ cups self raising flour
Method
- Preheat oven to 160C (320F). Grease and line a loaf tin.
- Put dates, sugar, butter and bicarbonate of soda into a saucepan. Pour over boiling water.
- Heat mixture to a boil and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Remove from heat.
- Allow to cool for a bit then add the flour. Mix flour in until just combined.
- Pour into lined loaf tin.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean.
- Serve warm or allow to cool and store in an airtight container.
