Date Bread
Recipe: Date Bread
This Date Bread is made using fermented dough where I have added pureed dates, chopped nuts and dried fruits. It is a sweet bread that can be enjoyed for breakfast or at tea time on Christmas Day. Can bake it a few days before Christmas. Toast it or warm it up before serving. What I like about this sweet bread is that one can use any dried fruits and nuts of their choice. Date Bread also makes an ideal gift for the festive season. Bake in mini loaf tins if you are gifting it.
Memories – My Daughter’s Wedding
Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas holiday. It is really satisfying to get back to blogging after over a month. My daughter is married and happy with her hubby and new family. Must say it has been a roller coaster ride for us preparing for this wedding. We call my daughter ‘The drama queen of the family’ and drama certainly happened ever so often. Don’t get me wrong it was not her creating the drama, but events or mishaps which would be followed by drama from the ‘queen’.
First Incident
The first such incident was when special earrings she had ordered from a designer all the way in Ludhiana arrived let’s say just for one ear and not two! That’s the time she cried and cried wanting her dad and brothers to be by her side now and now and now- her exact words!(they were about to arrive in a few days from their respective cities) . Crying, she threw her aunt and me out of the room.
After a while went to pacify her to come and have dinner. “I don’t want to come out of the room, everyone will know I cried”. The mother in me said “no sweety pie no one will know, they all think you’re resting”. What I really would have loved to say is “silly girl of course they all know you’ve been crying!”.
Second Incident
Drama didn’t end there. Just a week before the wedding, my daughter is at the beauty salon getting all pampered when a rickshaw driver calls her telling her that he has found a pillow shaped packet on the road addressed to her. Panic immediately seized her and she called me crying that her sangeet outfit(we’d been waiting for that and was suppose to arrive soon) is in the middle of the road! Dropped whatever I was doing in the kitchen and asked hubby to finish my work.
I was about to rush to the beauty salon when she called still sobbing that her best friends(angels in disguise) are coming to pick her up. What seemed like eons to me, we waited impatiently to know the outcome. The sangeet outfit was ordered from Delhi. The courier guy must have dropped it on the road and luckily the rickshaw driver(a farishta) saw it and picked it up. He took it to his house and asked his wife to call as she could speak a bit of English and explained to my daughter where she should pick the parcel from.
The friends and her went practically to the other end of Bangalore to pick up the parcel. After that it was celebration time for them and a huge sigh of relief for me. Did I mention that the earrings too were meant for the sangeet day? The designer sent the other one before the big day.
Third Incident
Thinking that now all is set and nothing can go wrong as the sangeet day went well, cyclone Vardah happens. Though the cyclone occurred in Chennai, it rained heavily in Bangalore. So the wedding planner had to rethink the whole setting from an outdoor one to an indoor one. The events manager stayed up whole night with her team to redesign the mandap for indoors. As you can imagine we were in a panic state but had to keep calm and take each hour as it comes.
The wedding was an evening one and rains did not stop till early morning on the 13th of Dec. Guests were suppose to have a brunch of idlis, dosa and vadas before they could go back to their hotels to get ready for the wedding. We waited for the caterer to arrive till 1p.m. and there was sight of him or his team. With the help of the family, we served not brunch but lunch at our apartment, hot tea, baklavas, magas, dhebras, farsi puri, chevdo, cookies, googras,etc. The caterer turns up at 2p.m. after all the guests had left.
The manager, a tiny guy was nearly in tears and I didn’t have the heart to shout at him(though I rehearsed how I should blast him ). God was certainly showing me alternate paths on that day… I asked him to go and feed children at an orphanage nearby and in return asked them to pray for a happy life for my daughter and son in law. And that worked out well. Happy kids, happy caterer and blessings for the newly wedded.
My Team
Besides my daughter, her besties were always there to help me from being my driver to getting contacts and running around for errands.Planning a wedding in a place where you don’t know many people, it is not your home town, is a bit difficult. I had a challenge looking for Gujarati caterers. But in the end all worked out well because of the excellent Events Manager and The Catering Team.
As for the decor, as soon as I entered the venue(Temple Tree), I was really really stunned. The whole indoor setting was like being in fairyland. Neethi and her partner of Purplerings had done a beautiful job of creating what my daughter wanted.
The wedding went well, no hitches and equally good was the delicious food served by The Creative Kitchen, Bangalore. The food served by Vishal and his team was not only delicious but was also served creatively and with courtesy to all the guests. Hot jalebis, appams, chandan sherbet, paneer tikkas and melt in the mouth paans were a hit with guests.
The vidaai too was unusual(so I’m told according to the norm in India and movies attest that!). My daughter hugged us all, and left with joy and laughter. Her joy and laughter was so infectious that we too sent her off with smiles on our faces. Or were we thinking that’s the end of dramas?
Sharing This Recipe With FoodieMonday/Bloghop
After the wedding, everyone left within a few days. Some off to tours they had booked, some back to their homes as their leave was over. Hubby and I felt the house too quiet. Looked around and all the after wedding sorting out to do! I actually slept a whole day! Literally… I slept through all that Fete noise going on right in our apartment grounds.
To get back to some sort of routine and have a bit ‘me’ time, I decided to participate in the Dried Fruits theme set by the members of FoodieMonday/ Bloghop. Had a lot of it ..leftovers after the wedding. Decided to use them to bake a sweet bread.
Check Out Some More Bread Recipes
Ingredients Required For Date Bread
Flour
I have used all purpose flour which is also known as plain flour, maida.
Yeast
I have used instant active dry yeast. This means that I can add it directly in the flour. Does not need to be fermented before using. If you are using the non instant type then take about ¼cup warm milk from the measured quantity. Add 1 tsp sugar and mix well. Sprinkle the yeast over it. Cover and allow the yeast to ferment. After 10 minutes the mixture should appear creamy and frothy. If it does not then there might be a problem with the yeast or the milk was too hot.
Dates
I like to use the soft variety of dates, so much easier to pit and they soak well in hot milk. Also it gives the paste a nice creamy texture as opposed to a gritty one.
Milk
Dairy milk is what I have used. In total I tend to use between 1¼ – 1½ cups of milk. It all depends on how much the flour soaks up.
Tea Masala
When it comes to a spice mix for bakes I love to use my homemade tea masala powder. You can use any spice mixture of your choice, like pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice. Or simply add a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom powder.
Butter
I have used soft salted butter. Do not melt the butter. It has to be room temperature soft. The butter is added in batches when the dough appears silky and smooth. Fat bonds to gluten proteins which prevents them from bonding with each other to form the required gluten network required for bread. Adding at the end prevents that.
Salt
Add a bit to bring out the sweetness of the bread. Helps to balance flavours.
Dried Fruits
I have used cranberries, raisins and also mixed peels. Use any dried fruits of your choice.
Nuts
Use a mixture of nuts or one type. I used walnuts only.
Sugar
I prefer to use brown sugar. Can use any sugar of your choice. Add sugar according to your taste. Also the amount will depend on how sweet the dates are.
Watch How To Make Date Bread
DATE BREAD
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 12-14 soft dates
- 1¼ -1½ cup warm milk
- 2 tsp dried active instant yeast
- 1 tsp tea masala
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup mixed peels
- ¼ cup walnuts chopped
- 3 tbsp soft butter
- 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
- extra flour for dusting
- extra butter for greasing
- 1 tbsp milk for brushing
Instructions
PREPARATION OF DATE PUREE:
- Remove the seeds from the dates.
- Heat the milk till it is hot.
- Add the dates to it and keep it on the side for 15-20 minutes.
- Puree the mixture in a blender.
PREPARATION OF DATE BREAD:
- Mix flour, yeast, tea masala, salt and sugar in a big bowl.
- Add the date puree to the flour mixture. Make sure it is warm and not cold. If it becomes cold warm it up.
- Mix and form a dough.
- Dust the worktop lightly with some flour and knead the dough for 10 - 15 minutes. In between add small knobs of butter.
- Knead the dough till it is smooth and silky.
- Alternately, knead the dough in your food processor using a dough hook. I allow it to knead for at least 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, add 1 tbsp of butter. Knead till it is incorporated in the dough.
- Repeat with the remaining 2 tbsp butter.
- Remove the dough from the food processor bowl onto a lightly flour dusted worktop.
- Add the dried fruits to the dough and knead for a few more minutes.
- Grease the bowl lightly with some butter.
- Shape the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl.
- Cover it with a cling film, wet towel or a lid and keep in a warm place for about 1½ hours or till it is double the size.
- Gently knead it on a lightly floured surface and shape it into a round ball or place it a loaf tin (9"X5"). If you are shaping it into a round ball then place it on a greased tray. Let the dough rise again for about 40-60 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Brush the top of the risen dough gently with some milk.
- Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes till the top is dark golden brown.
- If you find the top of the bread is dark brown before the baking time is over, cover it with a foil and continue to bake.
- Remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool down completely on a wire rack.
- Slice the bread and serve with some butter, jam or marmalade. Or toast it and enjoy.
Notes
Pin For Later:
A Little Request:
If you do try this recipe then please either
add a comment below,
send a picture to my email mayuri.ajay.patel62@gmail.com
tag me as #mayuri_jikoni on Instagram
or tag me on Twitter as #Mayuri1962
15 Comments
Sujata Roy
December 26, 2016 at 6:16 pm
Superb share Mayuri. Bookmarking it to try later. And really enjoyed reading your write up.
Sujata Roy
December 26, 2016 at 6:16 pm
Superb share Mayuri. Bookmarking it to try later. And really enjoyed reading your write up.
alkajena
December 27, 2016 at 2:51 pm
The bread makes me drool over this, though I am not a perfect bread maker, but this year I will learn from you
Pushpita Singh
January 3, 2017 at 8:47 am
Superb share Di! Happy that everything went well during the wedding!��
Preethi Prasad
January 21, 2017 at 12:09 pm
Perfect Bake!!! Using Chai Masala sounds interesting.Inspired to bake more now.
Kalyani
December 15, 2024 at 11:18 pm
I have used dates in quick breads and muffins , but never in an yeasted bread. The boule-like- bread looks so stunning and I bet it crusts beautifully too on toasting.. lovely share, Mayuri
PS – I read the “eventful” wedding anecote in detail, and glad everything worked out well 🙂
mayurisjikoni
December 16, 2024 at 8:34 pm
Thank you so much Kalyani. Date bread toasts well and it is a delight to enjoy with some butter and hot tea.
Jayashree T Rao
December 18, 2024 at 6:42 am
Lovely bread baked with dates in it. It makes a good tea time snack. Glad that all the wedding went on well later. Nice write up.
mayurisjikoni
December 20, 2024 at 9:22 pm
Thank you so much Jayashree.
Priya Vj
December 18, 2024 at 10:01 pm
I am sure the dates bread tastes mildly sweet and will go well with marmalade as you have rightly said. I remember enjoying the tutty fruity bread with marmalade. Ofcourse ,the dates bread is more healthy and tastier 🙂
The wedding anecdotes certainly were a good read ..brings a smile when we reminisce now.
mayurisjikoni
December 20, 2024 at 9:19 pm
Thank you so much Priya. Date bread does pair well with marmalade.
Priya Srinivasan
December 19, 2024 at 8:50 am
Oh my that really one eventful wedding mayuri ji! I can feel the relief you all must have felt after it all went well. Date bread looks stunning, i thought it would be a quick bread, reading the title, Its been long since i baked a yeast bread, this one is really tempting to try!!!
mayurisjikoni
December 20, 2024 at 9:17 pm
Thank you so much Priya. I make one also without the yeast but this one is perfect for Christmas breakfast.
Seema
December 22, 2024 at 7:12 pm
That is such a beautiful wedding setting, and such dear wedding memories.
This date bread with tea masala flavours is so delightful and perfect.
mayurisjikoni
December 26, 2024 at 7:04 pm
Thank you so much Seema.