This recipe was borne from the fact that I had a ton of boiled dates from making date syrup, and I knew that they would make a ridiculously good date bread. I was so right.
This date bread is so incredibly moist – I hate that word, but really there just isn’t another word to describe it – and so delicious, you will have to hide it in order to stop eating it. The process is a bit long, because the recipe calls for boiled dates and date syrup, but luckily for you, the date syrup is a result of boiling dates. I’ll walk you through it so don’t be afraid of the extra steps, because the result is awesome. The recipe has zero refined sugar in it – just 1/3 cup of date syrup – yet it’s as sweet and yummy as you’d want it because of the amount of dates I put into it.
I have made date syrup with medjool dates in the past, and have found that when I boil them down, I get a lot more syrup from them. So if you choose to use medjools, you’ll have syrup left over which is a good thing. The syrup can be used to make my granola (recipe here) or as a sweetener for basically anything.
Breads like these usually call for butter, but I decided to use coconut oil instead, and supplement it with coconut milk too. This ensures that the bread is super tender and has a coconutty flavor that is to die for. I added in 1/3 cup of coconut flakes because I can never get enough coconut. If you’re not a coconut lover, you can leave out the coconut flakes and use butter instead of the coconut oil and coconut milk.
The bread bakes for an entire hour, which is a long time, but again, worth the wait. Actually our oven broke right when I was making the first draft of this recipe, and ever the macgyver, I put the pan of batter into the toaster oven and baked it in there. Turned out great!
I don’t have the exact figures, but I suspect that this date bread is chock-full of fiber from all those dates, the coconut, and the wholewheat flour I used.
Serves 12
4 cups dates
2 cups boiled dates
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup coconut milk
1.5 cups whole wheat all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
1/3 cup date syrup
2 eggs
1t baking soda
1/2t salt
1/2t vanilla extract
Make the date syrup:
Put the dates and 6 cups of water together in a pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.
Strain the liquid from the dates back into the pot, and simmer until the liquid thickens. This will only be around 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn the syrup!
Reserve the boiled dates for use in this recipe. You should have around 2 cups.
Bake the bread:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream the coconut oil, coconut milk, and date syrup together. Try to get the mixture as smooth as you can, beating out the clumps of coconut oil.
Add the eggs, dates, and vanilla, and beat until blended.
Sift together the flour, coconut, baking soda, and salt.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing until just blended and dry ingredients incorporated into the wet ingredients. Don’t over blend or it will ruin your finished product.
Bake in a greased loaf pan at 350F for one hour.
Try not to eat the whole thing at once.
