Grandma Renees Date Nut Loaf Food

GRANDMA'S DATE-NUT BREAD

Steps:

• Put raisins in a bowl. Pour boiling water over raisins; soak until raisins have flavored the water, about 20 minutes. Drain raisins, reserving the water. Discard raisins.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a loaf pan with butter.
• Bring reserved water to a boil in a small saucepan. Measure 3/4 cup boiling water into a bowl. Stir baking soda into water.
• Put dates and prunes in a large bowl. Pour baking soda-water over dates and prunes; add unsalted butter and stir until melted. Stir sugar and vanilla extract into the fruit mixture; let cool to room temperature.
• Stir egg into the fruit mixture to evenly coat. Mix flour and salt together in a small bowl; add to fruit mixture and stir. Fold walnuts into the mixture and pour into the prepared loaf pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50 to 65 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

GRANDMA RENEE'S DATE NUT LOAF

Steps:

• Boil sugar, milk and butter until it forms a soft ball in cool water (grandma's exact words) -- around 240 degrees.
• Fold in chopped dates and pecans, continue to cook until it pulls away from the pan (around 255 degrees).
• Pour onto wet cloth in log form - dust with powdered sugar and roll.
• Cool and cut into 20 pieces.

DATE WALNUT LOAF

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350F; spray a loaf pan with nonstick baking spray like Pam, and set aside.
• In a small bowl or measuring cup, pour boiling water over baking soda so that soda dissolves.
• Place dates in a mixing bowl and pour water/soda mixture over dates; let cool.
• In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
• In a different bowl, beat the egg with an electric mixer, then slowly add the brown sugar, beating well after each addition.
• To the egg/sugar mixture, add cooled date mixture, toasted nuts and vanilla; mix well.
• Stir in the dry ingredients.
• Now, add the melted butter and mix well.
• Pour this mixture into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for approximately 55 minutes, or until loaf tests done.
• Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pan, then cool completely on a rack.

DATE NUT LOAF

Steps:

• pour boiling water over dates and butter, let it stand until cool.
• preheat oven to 325.
• mix the dry ingredients together, add the date mixture, egg, cheese and walnuts, mix until blended, by hand scrape into a greased loaf pan, let it sit 20 minutes.
• bake 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted to center comes out dry.
• turn out to rack to cool serve with butter.

GREAT-GRANDMA CATHY'S DATE LOAF CANDY

Steps:

• Stir sugar, milk, and butter together in a saucepan; bring to a boil without stirring once the boiling begins. Heat until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a rigid ball or until the mixture reaches 250 degrees F (120 degrees C), about 20 minutes. Immediately remove saucepan from heat and stir dates, pecans, and vanilla into the milk mixture.
• Thoroughly wet a piece of cheesecloth and lay out onto a flat work surface. Pour the candy mixture into the middle of the cloth and roll the cloth around it to shape into a log.
• Refrigerate until hard, 8 hours to overnight. Remove log from cloth and slice.