A mix between a cake and a bread, perhaps with a heavier leaning towards the former, this Date, Walnut and Banana quick bread is truly delicious. Moist, sweet and with a soft crumb, this bread/cake is easy to make and is really nice to have on hand.
This bread is an adaptation from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cranberry Banana Walnut Quick Bread, and like usual her recipes do not disappoint. Her recipe calls for two cups of fresh or frozen cranberries; something which probably makes for a very nice cake, however since we didn't have that on hand we reached for something that most definitely produced an almost, if not more delicious bread: dried dates. This choice probably made the bread even sweeter than hers, since dates are very sweet and fresh cranberries are … not. We also replaced 1/4 cup of sugar with brown sugar instead for added richness.
Serve this plain, with butter or with cream cheese, it's great either way. Date, Walnut & Banana Quick Bread
1 loaf
Ingredients: - 1 cup walnuts
- 2 cups minus 1 tbsp ap flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 8 tbsp butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 1 1/2 tbsp sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups dried dates, seedless and chopped
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Toast the walnuts for a few minutes in the hot oven, make sure they don't burn! Let cool on a plate.
Butter and flour a loaf pan.
Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl. In a mixer bowl cream the butter and sugar (both white and brown) for three minutes or so. Now add the eggs, banana, sour cream and vanilla and continue mixing for another minute. Now add the flour mixture, beat on low for a few seconds, then add the nuts and the dates and mix for a few more seconds until everything is combined.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan.
Bake for a total of 65 minutes in the 350 F degree oven. About half way through, tint with a foil to make sure the top doesn't brown too much.
Let the loaf cool in the loaf pan for about 10 minutes after baking, then unmold and let cool completely on a cooling rack.
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