Christmas is in the air and Thanksgivings is just outside the door! We are all busy in either inviting people over dinner or planning for holidays. And food bloggers are busy in publishing special recipes for the occasion. I’m no exception; I have a list of dishes which I had planned to cook, click and publish before Thanksgivings. But somehow I got lazy in between and everything got delayed. Okay, the truth is I dint do anything; point is made; fine! And now I needed something to do to wipe off my guilt but it had to be a quick and easy recipe. Speaking of which what could be better than a quick teacake which I can serve on breakfast and with evening tea too! So I chose this Eggless Date Walnut Loaf which can have lots of variations which I will be explaining little later.
Few days ago I realized it’s too late to prepare an entire menu for Thanksgivings special recipe when I have to cook for a small group of people in a single day. So I was looking for recipes which can be prepared ahead of time and can be used to feed a group of people. Then I found an Eggless Date Walnut Loaf recipe which I had never tried before. So I had to do a little trial before I bake on the show day. Surprisingly it came out so wonderfully I couldn’t stop myself from clicking few snaps for the blog. So tiny weeny detailing is missing from pictures which I’ve explained in Tips or in the recipe.
This Eggless Date Walnut Loaf is extremely delicate teacake with very little sweetness in it. The dates in it keeps it super moist while the roasted walnuts give a nice crunch in each bite. As the cake is very light and less sweet it can be easily enjoyed with tea/coffee. On the other hand the same cake can be a great dessert with little touch of ice-cream and chocolate or caramel sauce. This was so damn good to be true for me at least! Again this same loaf can be made as butter-less with equal amount of oil. And if you have walnut oil I insist you to use that, forget butter! Even this same recipe can produce a beautiful Eggless Christmas cake if you are not into Traditional Christmas Fruitcakewith touch of orange zest and some other fruits & nuts. Isn’t it a real surprise package?
Here is my step by step recipe of Eggless Date Walnut Loaf for you all.
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking/Active Time: 40 mins
Resting/Inactive time: 10 mins
Total Time: 70 mins
Yield: 10-12 servings
Ingredients:
All purpose flour: 260g or 2 cups (See Tips)
Baking powder: 1 tsp
Baking soda: ½ tsp + ½ tsp
Brown sugar: 105g or ½ cup (See Tips)
Salt: ¼ tsp, (See Tips)
Butter or margarine: 110g or 1 stick, cold + 1 tsp, melted for greasing (See Tips)
Date, pitted: 220g or 1 ½ cups (See Tips)
Walnut: 50g or ½ cup
Boiling water: 230ml or 1 cup
Ground cinnamon: 1 tsp (optional) (See Tips)
Ground nutmeg: ½ tsp (optional)
Orange zest: 1 tbsp (optional) (See Tips)
Cocoa powder: 1 tbsp for dusting (optional) (See Tips)
Equipment:
Sieve
Whisk
Spatulas
Cling film
Butter paper
Electric beater
Large mixing bowl
Small mixing bowl
8.5” x 4.5” loaf pan
Small saucepan
Preparation:
This is a very easy and quick teacake. It is less sweet than usual cake so it can be easily enjoyed with tea/coffees. That’s why sometimes it is also called as bread or loaf.
Before you start preparing for baking, make sure all ingredients are at room temperature (unless mentioned) and weighted or measured correctly in appropriate weighing machine or measuring instruments such as cups or spoons. Remember these are not your regular cups or spoons which you use in your daily life.
Start working with the fruits first.
Extract the orange zest from a fresh orange (if using any).
Chop the date and walnut finely with a sharp knife. Or you can also use your food processor for this job.
Now take a large heat proof bowl and soak the chopped dates in boiling water with ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp baking soda. Cover the bowl with cling film or a tightly fitted lid and leave for 30-40 mins. (See Tips)
Cut the cold butter into small cubes. Don’t let the butter comes to room temperature. It is necessary to use them as cold cut. (See Tips)
Preheat the oven to 1800C. Take the chopped walnuts in an oven proof pan and roast in oven for 8-10 mins @1800C. (See Tips)
Now finally it’s time to start mixing.
In a large bowl sieve and sift all dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, spices) together. Repeat the process one more time. Add cubed cold butter.
Mix all the ingredients either with your hands or food processor until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add chopped roasted walnuts into the mixture. And gently fold with spatula.
Take soaked date with orange zest (if using any) and give it a light stir and add it to the flour-walnut mixture. Now very gently start mixing the ingredients with a spatula till the white stain of flour disappears completely. Don’t over mix it; otherwise loaf will be hard and chewy. But make sure there are no lumps at all. (See Tips)
Grease the pan with softened butter and dust the same with cocoa powder. Tap off the excess cocoa powder. (See Tips)
Fill 2/3 of the pan with the cake batter and tap the pan few times on the kitchen counter. (See Tips)
This teacake will be very moist and dense so it needs to be baked for longer period on low temperature. It will ensure a nice evenly baked loaf without burning the top or sides. First bake the loaf in preheated (1700C) oven for 30-35 mins at 1600C; then, lower the temperature to 1400C and bake for another 10-15 mins (depending on your oven) or until a skewer comes out with clean crumbs when inserted in the middle of the cake. (See Tips)
Remove the cake from oven and set on wire rack to cool down. Once it is easy to handle, tap the pan on the kitchen counter for few times gently to loosen up the sides of the cake or run a blunt knife on the sides for the same reason. Now allow the cake to rest on wire rack until cool completely. Once cake comes to room temperature, invert the pan on a large palate and remove the pan carefully. (See Tips)
Eggless Date Walnut teacake/loaf is all set to go with your evening tea/coffee. Take a very sharp knife and slice the cake in 1” or ½” thickness or as you desire and serve with tea/coffee in your tea party or with a glass of milk to your toddlers. If you want to serve it as dessert on Thanksgivings like me, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and little chocolate sauce drizzled on top.
This cake is perfectly capable to satisfy 10-12 persons. Excess cake can be refrigerated in airtight container. Taste will be good upto 6-7 days. Just warm it up before serving.
Variations:
1. Use 1 tbsp of orange zest to enhance the aroma. It will add the flavor of Christmas cake too.
2. Use 1/3 cup to ½ cup oil especially walnut oil instead of butter. By omitting the butter, you can turn this loaf into vegan too.
3. Use whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour. But I’ll suggest you to use both flours in 50-50 ratio.
4. Use 1 egg and reduce the amount baking powder and soda to half as mentioned in the recipe.
5. Use other dry fruits and nuts to turn it into a Eggless Christmas Fruitcake.
6. Serve this cake as breakfast/snack with your tea or add a scoop of ice-cream and drizzle some chocolate or caramel sauce on top to turn it to a scrumptious dessert.
6. Serve this cake as breakfast/snack with your tea or add a scoop of ice-cream and drizzle some chocolate or caramel sauce on top to turn it to a scrumptious dessert.
Tips:
1. Instead of using all-purpose flour, both whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour can be combined in 50:50 ratios.
2. Equal amount of regular powdered sugar can also be used but brown sugar definitely adds a nice dark caramelized color to the loaf.
Another thing is its okay to add little less sugar than the specified measurement but never add more. If you add less sugar your cake will be puffy and yes little less sweet but that will hardly make any differences if you are having perfect spongy cake. But more sugar not only spoils your taste it will also produce soggy and lumpy cake.
3. Use additional salt only if you are using unsalted butter.
4. I always use salted margarine to lower the count of cholesterol and fat in my baked goodies instead of butter.it also helps me not to worry about additional salt. You can choose whatever suits you better, there is no hard-n-fast rules about this.
5. You can also use regular dates and remove the seeds yourself.
6. When using ground spices for baking, try to use freshly grounded ones as they give the best aroma.
7. I dint use any this time but I use more orange zest towards Christmas as the aroma from orange zest and spices gives the true feeling of Christmas.
8. Always use cocoa powder to dust the baking pan while baking chocolate or any other dark colored cake. Because, the dusting of white flour looks awful on dark colored cake/loaf.
9. The salted boiling water will help the dried dates to regain the moisture and the soda will escalate the process. If you are using salted butter/margarine use only soda with boiling water.
10. Cold cut butter will melt while baking and thus it will add a nice aroma and texture to the cake/loaf.
11. You can roast the walnuts on stove top for 5-6 mins on medium flame until nuts are fragrant. If you are using pre-roasted nuts, skip this step.
12. While mixing all the ingredients, keep stirring in single direction. This will keep the aeration intact.
13. Greasing and dusting the baking pan will make sure that cake won’t stick to it while baking.
14. Tapping the baking pan with mixture will help to release air bubbles from inside the batter, if any forms. And the batter will be spread evenly in the pan.
15. Keep checking after initial time specified. It may take 10-15 mins more/less depending on your oven.
16. Sometimes top of the cake gets the perfect brown color but inside still remains jiggy. Don’t worry about it. Cover the top with a heavy duty foil and continue baking for 10-15 mins more. This will prevent the top from over baking or burning while inside of the cake will continue to bake.
17. Don’t touch or try to cut the cake while it is hot. It is damn fragile now. Allow it to cool. Once it is cooled it will be firm.
Eat Taste, Stay Healthy!!!
looks yum and dense.. love the loads of walnut
Hi is it not way too less sugar 1/2 cup as compared to flour2 cups.
Thanks
1 ½ cups Dates are already sweet enough for my taste so I do not need more than 1/2 cup sugar for this recipe. If you want you can increase the amount of sugar.