Since it's raining today, not good for walking, but good for baking, I made a date nut bread thing.
It was a pretty fancy recipe, with about 12 ingredients, including a slug of vodka! They claim it's about flavor, but I wonder if it's just to keep the cook going, if she takes a nip in the process. Anyway, it's a pretty high maintenance bread/cake. I don't do spirits, so that was absent.
I buttered and oiled the castiron skillet again, since it's great for cakes and I wondered if my square pan would be big enough for this fairly extensive recipe.
As I say, high maintenance. I think recipes ought to come with charts showing how many bits of kit you need in the course of making them. This is just the dishes from this recipe, the three mixing bowls already washed and put away to make room in the sink for the ever growing pile of equipment.
I had to take it out of the pan in two halves, since though it was willing to come out easily, my wrist isn't strong enough to hold up the iron pan complete with cake in one hand, tip it onto the other and then to the cooling rack. I started then decided that way madness lay. So I halved it and lifted it out without incident. And cut a slice to try. The texture is very nice, all the ingredients nicely distributed. Looks moist. So I took a bite.
Hm. Maybe this is the sort of cake that needs to mature a bit for the flavors to work. Right now, it's okay, but it tastes a bit random. And I'm not at all sure it was worth all the time and effort. I think the simple sweet potato bread was better. This one may benefit from cream cheese, though, since a lot of people like to spread it on. For that I need yogurt which I don't currently have. So we'll see. I satisfied my curiosity, but I'm not sure this is a hill to die on.
I wonder if you can use cooked beets in cake? it would certainly make a nice rosy color. Hm. Maybe I'll investigate that next. In a while.
Cakes like that, needing to set a while, are perfect for a thick layer of butter cream or custard. Looks good in photos.
ReplyDeleteOh, I like Salty Pumpkin's suggestion above. Mmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteHm. I usually go in for plain cake. But maybe I should revisit that.
ReplyDeleteI made a Sticky Toffee Pudding the other day - same as your bread/cake experience. Think I used every bowl, pot, pan, and various tools in the kitchen!
ReplyDeleteBottom line: was it good enough to be worth it? I've never made it, should see what it's about.
DeleteAs soon as I saw the title of this post, I remembered I have a large container of fresh Medjool dates in the fridge.... so of course hand to go and eat some. This cake sounds good, what a shame you were a bit disappointed with it. Me, I love date squares.
ReplyDeleteToday the date nut bread is in fact much better. The flavors have got going. So it might have been worth it!
DeleteAs I recall from my cooking days I hated working with dates. Just the chopping of them was enough to put me off. Like to eat them, but work with them? Not so much. Glad to hear the flavour has come out enough to make you contemplate doing it again.
ReplyDeleteI've made labneh to spread on, so we'll see. It has improved each day.
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