Cinnamah-Brosia writes the recipe posts for our blog, but she asked me to handle this one for her. “C-B” makes it at The Coffee Cottage, and it’s included in The Essence of Joy (available mid to late October). But it is my family’s story, so here goes. The discovery was made in perfect timing. Snapping a quick pic on my phone I messaged it to my nephew — what a special birthday gift!
Ask any of her grandchildren. They will all tell you Grandma Grace, my mom, made the best banana bread. She entrusted what we believed to be the only copy of her recipe to my daughter. Numerous times they asked for the recipe when it went AWOL from my daughter’s collection. Again and again they heard me say, “It simply didn’t exist anymore.” Mom began making it when her grandchildren were young. They had fond memories of the
Banana Bread, but what I loved and remembered more was her Date Nut Bread. It appeared in our home every holiday, and disappeared quite quickly, I might add.
Sadly, both recipes had disappeared for what looked like forever. Ten years we lamented the fact. Then going through some cookbooks on a shelf in my kitchen, VOILA! What a discovery! One of these cookbooks was her attempt to type up every recipe she loved and put it in a three-ring binder for safe keeping. They were safe alright and out of sight for those ten years. And you guessed it, both the banana bread and the date nut bread recipes were included. Did I mention the cookbook was on a shelf in my kitchen (with all my other cookbooks I regularly used) the whole time? It was! Once again both breads are family favorites. Here’s the recipe for Grandma Grace’s Date Nut Bread.
Grace’s Date Nut Bread*
for the date mixture you’ll need:
2 1/2 cups pitted dates
2 cups hot water*
2 tsp baking soda
Mix these three ingredients together. Allow to cool.
for the batter you’ll need:
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar*
1 cup chopped pecans
2 eggs
2 Tbls butter
½ tsp salt
1 tsp Vanilla
Cream sugar and eggs with an electric mixer. Mix in salt, butter, and vanilla. Fold in flour and date mixture alternately. (Add about 1 cup of flour followed by ¼ of the date mixture each time.) Continue in this matter until all of the flour and date mixture has been added. Stir in nuts.
Pour into five (5) well greased mini-loaf pans.
Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. [Bread is done when toothpick inserted in top of loaf should come out clean, or when internal temperature (measured with a meat thermometer) reaches 185 degrees.]
Cool. Slice. [A sharp knife is best to cut through the dates.] Slather each slice with real butter, and enjoy! Goes great with a cup of coffee. (smile)
*One (1) cup honey may be substituted for the two (2) cups sugar in this recipe. If you use the honey, reduce the amount of water to 1 ¾ cups.
NOTE: NOTE: The only reference I have for this recipe is a typed copy in the above mentioned three-ring binder. Any similarity to any recipe found elsewhere is unintentional and by coincidence.
Copyright Lynn U. Watson, 2017.