Summer is coming to an end, and students are back in school. I did a post several weeks ago for the back-to-school season on suggestions in a hundred-year-old year old cookbook for packed lunches. Date and nut sandwiches were one suggestion. A reader commented, “Date/nut bread with creamy cream cheese… um.”
I’d never had Date and Nut Bread, so the next thing I knew, I was searching through my hundred-year-old cookbooks to see if I could find any recipes for Date and Nut Bread. Happily, I found a recipe, and made it yesterday.
The Date and Nut Bread was moist, and chock full of dates and pecans. Now that I’ve eaten Date and Nut Bread, I can state with confidence that I agree with the reader, “Date/nut bread with creamy cream cheese… um.” It would be lovely in a packed lunch.
Here’s the original recipe:
I interpreted “hot wheat breakfast cereal” as cream of wheat. I was surprised that it was listed as an ingredient in the recipe, but it worked fine.
When, I made the recipe, I substituted a packet of dry yeast for the yeast cake.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Date and Nut Bread
2 cups of hot cream of wheat cereal (prepare the cereal following package direction)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups dates, chopped
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 packet active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm milk (105 – 115° F.)
approximately 5 cups bread flour
In a large bowl mix together the hot cream of wheat cereal, brown sugar, salt, dates, and pecans. Allow to partially cool for a few minutes.
In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk. When the cereal mixture is lukewarm (105-115° F.), add the dissolved yeast and stir to combine. Add half of the flour and stir to combine, then gradually add the remaining flour until the dough reaches a consistency where it can be handled. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Put in a large greased bowl, cover and place in a warm spot that is free from drafts until doubled in size (about 1 1/2 hours).
Punch dough down, then divide dough into two equal parts and shape into loaves. Place in two greased loaf pans, and cover. Let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour).
Bake loaves in 375° F. oven for 35 -45 minutes or until lightly browned.
Date nut bread with cream cheese was a standard in my lunch boxes. I always liked it, and had forgotten it. My mother’s recipe was a quick bread, though; at least, I’m pretty sure it was. I’ll have to look around and see if I can find a similar recipe. With fall coming, I’m willing to turn on the oven again, and that would be a nice cooler weather treat.
I hope that you find your mother’s recipe. I know that when I started looking in my hundred-year-old cookbooks for a Date and Nut Bread recipe, I was anticipating that I’d find a quick bread recipe – and was surprised that instead I found a yeast bread recipe.
I can’t find Mom’s recipe, but this one seems very much like hers. I remember that she would soften the dates with coffee from time to time, and I remember that we always wrapped the loaves and left them in the fridge for a day before slicing them (if she could keep us from grabbing the knife right away!)
Thanks for finding. It look delicious – and I like how simple it is. It would be fun to do a comparison of the yeast and quick bread versions of Date and Nut Bread – though somehow I don’t think that I have the energy to actually do a comparison. 🙂
Well, I’ve got my grocery list made and there’s date/nut bread on the schedule. I can taste it now!
Thank you so much for finding this!!
You’re welcome. And, thank you for giving me the idea of making Date and Nut Bread.
An old memory I wished to revisit!
Even though it sounds good, I doubt I could have gotten my kids to eat it. Now they would.
Often children don’t seem like they are as adventuresome when it comes to food as many adults are.
This sounds great. Unfortunately, I can’t begin to imagine what Cream of Wheat cereal is. Is it like porridge, but made with wheat?
I think that it might be called farina in the UK. It’s similar to porridge (oatmeal), but made with finely ground wheat.
I wonder if you could do it with oatmeal?
Probably. Oatmeal might add a little additional texture since it’s coarser than cream of wheat.
I love that this uses cream of wheat! Obviously, this recipe was born from the frugal need to use up that already cooked cereal!
Mom used to make date nut bread at the holidays, we all loved it.
I also liked how the recipe used cream of wheat. Cooks back then really tried to avoid waste.
Apparently not. Our Farina is a potato flour based alternative to cornflour. Trawling through Google, it seems, as I suspected, that we just don’t have cream of wheat here. Which seems a bit strange. It sounds a good breakfast dish.
We grew up on it, and really love it. Cream of rice, too.
Also unknown here! We’re missing out.
Yum!
It’s tasty.
Looks good.
It’s delish.
Good.