Gramma's Date Loaf

So my stupid computer broke not once but twice in the last month and it spent a lot of time at the pretty Apple store. It was hard at first, no email, no blogs to check every day. But then I suddenly exploded in a burst of creativity. I sewed, I knit, I baked, I drew, I read and I even cleaned, decluttered and purged a heap of crap from my home. It was great to have a break from the internet but it's good to have it back too! I am trying to maintain a good balance with my free time now. So far this morning I have done all my internet screwing around, baked a date loaf (recipe to follow), started prepping for the picnic-style dinner I have to take out tonight and started making a new black skirt for work. It's not even noon.

The date loaf. It's good. I always have a lot of dates around, I eat a lot of multigrain porridge for breakfast, with chopped dates cooked in it so I don't need to add sugar. Sounds boring and uber-healthy, but dammit, it's so delicious. So a big tub of dates. The need (desire, really) for a portable sweet thing struck me as I was assembling a picnic dinner to take with us to a football game tonight. And my sister loves date loaf. And I have dates. And date loaf is pretty low fat and added sugar. Perfect for my current attempt to eat less of both of those things.

My grandma has a great recipe, but as I am physically unable not to tinker, I added a few more spices. And some pecans. Here it is:

225g/8 oz chopped dates
1 tsp bicarb soda
1 cup boiling water

Combine these ingredients and let it sit until the water is cold

In a mixing bowl, add 225g/8oz self raising flour, 1 TBS brown sugar, ground cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, cloves and nutmeg to taste (about 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cardamom and a pinch or two of cloves), a couple of handfuls (1/2 a cup) of chopped pecans, or walnuts or whatever nut you like)

add the cooled date mixture (including all the liquid) to the dry mix and add one egg. Mix it up, whack it in a loaf tin and bake in a moderate oven (180 C) until it's cooked. I cooked mine in two mini tins and it took 30 mins. I would think a normal loaf would take 45 or so.