Date Nut Bread

True to form and cliché, a LA day is too gorgeous to stay inside. Golden sunshine is as inviting as an open door, and goes far to explain why socializing outdoors is so vital a dimension of the southern California lifestyle. From apartment complex to coffee shop, neighbors gather after the requisite morning workout. It is not uncommon to take your morning coffee and newspaper (albeit the electronic version) to poolside or patio and plan the day’s activities from a palazzo table. These may include anything from a trip to the beach to a luncheon date, from a walk along the glorious vulgarity of a boulevard to a hike into the gritty heights of a canyon.

In these locales and any other, every step you take will be safeguarded by the powerful presence of palm trees. It is impossible not to feel the protective energy of these gentle giants as you pass – yes, usually in your car, but not impossibly on foot – as they reach upwards, as if to embrace the sky. But then, the sky is turquoise – who, if they only had the stature,wouldn’t try to embrace it?

Like most of us, palm trees are transplants to Los Angeles, and in classic Hollywood fashion, once they got here, they became famous. Palms are one of the largest and most populated families of trees in the world, but in California, only one species –Washingtonia filifera, the California fan palm—is native. All others are imports. This is because, although we can no more imagine southern California without palm trees than we can imagine it without oranges, golden suntans or silver screens, the climate is not the one that palms naturally prefer. In reference to the importance of mission culture to California, including its undeniable influence on the topography, missionaries introduced palms as an ornamental and some say religious feature along with the iron grill work and the whitewash. But it was the simple act of the evolution of Los Angeles at the turn of the twentieth century into a western metropolis that made an icon of its tallest and most stately citizens. During this pivotal time in SoCal history, there was a concerted effort to landscape Los Angeles in service to the vision of the city of the future, and the preferred greenery was palms, eucalyptus, and citrus.

Aside from shelter, palms give us a range of gifts from palm oil to coconuts. It should be noted that, as populous as the family is, some species are endangered, and though with so large a family it is difficult to determine a definitive number, at least nine species are extinct.Overharvesting and the curious needs of palm seeds are the primary culprits. You can help with the first by educating yourself about products that only use palm oil that has been sustainably harvested and by not consuming hearts of palm. To learn more about palm conservancy, click here.

One gift palms give us and of which we can avail ourselves with a clear conscious is dates. Dates are the fruit of the date palm, a broad family of palms that are indigenous to the ancient near east. Date palms are among the most ancient extant species in the world and dates are one of humanity’s earliest cultivated foods – both are confirmed as cultivated for food as far back as Mesopotamia. Outside of middle eastern cuisine, today dates are as often a curiosity from a dried fruit tray as they are popular as an ingredient or a snack, but in kitchens of yore (way yore, if one happens to live in the cradle of civilization), they were common. This is especially notable in golden era California cuisine, where dates are present in everything from salads to baked goods. Perhaps this tracks back to the palm – to living outdoors, to the reassurance of home and the pleasures of the western patio.

Date nut bread has an iconic place at the American table. Of all of the quick breads we bake at Urban Home – from sunny lemon to Christmassy cranberry – date nut bread has unfortunately fallen out of popularity. But there was a time when this loaf was as expected a skill in a home cook’s repertoire as making peanut brittle or shining a candlestick. It’s an appropriate recipe for Urban Home’s current focus on California cooking, because it’s an agreeably old fashioned treat that evokes old movie images of ladies in aprons and hair bows bustling in set design kitchens with the intention to maneuver beaux just returned from the front into becoming marriage minded. Once they’ve tried it, tasters find themselves pleased to discover or rediscover the sweet, spicy notes of this quick bread. The old-fashioned way to serve date nut bread is toasted and slathered with sweetened cream cheese, and that is how I have written this original recipe. 

DATE NUT BREAD

Dates should be available in two forms at most large supermarkets – dried and fresh. This recipe will accommodate either but is written for dried dates. Pitted, dried dates for baking should be available in the baking or dried fruit sections. They should be sold chopped but if not,process them in a mini food processor. To use fresh dates, obtain slightly more than a pound of them (typically from a box with a plastic overlay in the fresh fruit section).Use a sharp paring knife to remove the pit from each date and chop the date into small pieces; be prepared to frequently dip the knife into water as you work.

For the bread

1-1/2 cups chopped dried dates
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus additional for pan
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground mace

1 cup chopped walnuts

For the cream cheese spread

1 8-ounce bar cream cheese

¼ cup honey

Ground nutmeg

Make the bread

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Butter bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. To obtain a good loaf pan, click here. Set aside.

3. Lightly butter a rimmed cookie sheet. Distribute the chopped walnuts on the sheet. Place the cookie sheet containing the walnuts into the oven. Roast the walnuts until they give off their fragrance,approximately 7 – 10 minutes. Remove the sheet from the oven and set aside to cool.

4. Put a pan of water on the stovetop. Turn the heat to high.

5. While the walnuts are roasting and the water is coming to the boil, measure the chopped, pitted dates into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter to the bowl.

6. Once the water is boiling, turn the burner off. Working carefully to avoid burns, measure out ¾ cup hot water. Carefully pour the measured hot water into the bowl containing the dates and the butter. Use a silicon spatula to stir the mixture until well combined. The butter will melt as you work.

7. In a separate mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and mace.

8. Once the dates have reconstituted (approximately 5minutes), carefully measure the brown sugar, molasses and baking vanilla into the date mixture. Use a small silicon spatula to get all of the molasses into the mixture. Stir until well combined.

9. Working one at a time, add the eggs to the date-sugar mixture. Stir the mixture well after adding each egg.

10. Gently stir the date mixture with one hand while shaking all of the seasoned flour into the mixture with the other hand.

11. Add the cooled roasted walnuts to the batter.

12. Stir the batter just until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

13. Use a silicon spatula to gently transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan. Use the spatula to get all of the batter, and to gently smooth the top of the bread.

14. Place the bread in the oven. Bake (no peeking) for 60minutes.

15. After 60 minutes, check the bread. It should be very fragrant with a nice split and risen top. If not, bake for 5 minutes.

16. Remove bread from oven and let cool completely before slicing and serving. 

Make the cream cheese spread

1. While the bread is baking, unwrap the cream cheese and place into a medium mixing bowl.

2. Add a pinch of dried nutmeg to the bowl.

3. Measure the honey into the bowl.

4. Lightly cover the bowl. Allow the cream cheese to soften while the bread bakes.

5. When ready to serve, use a wire whisk or stick blender fitted with the whisk attachment to whip the cream cheese and honey together.