Date and Walnut Loaf

I dont know whether it has something to do with the weather or not..whenever, i see a sunny day after a couple of days of snow or rain, i feel like baking!!!!! Its probably just the thought having something hot from the oven with a nice hot cup of coffee or tea and enjoy the sun..thats what my facebook status said yesterday " enjoying the sun with a cup of coffee and a slice of date-walnut loaf" :) But, dont people, generally, feel like having a plate of hot samosas and a cup of coffee on a nice cold and rainy/snowy day?!! Well, i think its my way of celebrating the sun!! :)

Yesterday was one such day. The weekend was pretty horrible with hailstorms and rains and snow and sunshine and what not!! Seattle was going crazy again! The weather is to pick up from there and become pretty warm and spring-like and thats what im seeing now :) Yesterday was the beginning of that and i just loved the sun for it. I own only one cookbook on baking (pretty sad isnt it? *hint hint* to "anyone" who wants to buy me more ;) ) and i was going through it..cupcakes was what that caught my eyes first, but i didnt want to fuss around with the frosting and what good is a cupcake without frosting. Then the same old banana bread, AJ will defenitely not be happy to see another batch of banana bread. Not that he doesn't like it, but I made it like 3 times over the last 2 weeks. And then, I saw the recipe for a Walnut and Date Loaf. I remembered the box of california dates thats been sitting in my pantry for a while now. I generally don't like dates and we bought it sometime back to boost up the iron content in my body cos my medical report said that i was slightly on the anaemic side :( Now, Im alright! So, there I was, all happy to have decided what Im going to bake! :)

Date and Walnut Loaf

adapted from the book "Perfect baking"

6 0z butter

1 cup pitted dates, chopped into small pieces

3/4 cup Simply Orange juice

1/4 cup water

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

some walnut halves to decorate

Grease the bottom and ends of a loaf pan and preheat the oven to 325F. Place the dates, orange juice and water in a pan and cook over medium heat for about 10 mins or until a soft puree is formed (make sure the liquid becomes a puree and that most of the date pieces remain so). Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in the beaten eggs. Sift in the flours, baking soda and baking powder and finally add the walnuts as well.

Spread half of this mixture in the loaf pan and spread the date puree on top of it. Top it off with another layer of the flour mixture. Arrange the walnut halves on it and bake in the oven for an hour or till a knife comes out clean when inserted. Once it is done, let it cool in the pan for 10 mins or so and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Enjoy with a cup of hot coffee, like I did!! :)