We all have foods that invoke those halcyon days of our youth, warm comfort food that we ‘go to’ to make bad days better. Date loaf is one such food for my sister Ria, and in the past months all she wanted was some Date Loaf like we used to eat when we were kids. This recipe has been reverse engineered from memories of what it should taste like. When made using low sodium baking powder and sweet butter each slice averages 100mg sodium.

For the best results there are a couple of things to do first.

Step One: the flavour is better if you can soak the dates overnight in the water and molasses. If you dont have time  the day before – boil the water and pour over the chopped dates, place in freezer until cool (about 1 hour) use this time to do step 2.

Step Two: Sift General purpose (plain flour) with the low sodium baking powder 6 times using a large strainer or sieve.

Step Three: Preheat oven to 375F or 180C then grease and line the base of your loaf pans.

Mixing the cake

Ingredients: Measurements in imperial and (metric)

• 3 cups General Purpose Flour (Plain)
• 6 level teaspoons Low Sodium Baking Powder (less than 450mg/tsp)
• 2 Sticks sweet butter (225gm unsalted butter)
  you cannot use margarine for this recipe as it
  
  contains too much salt
• ½ cup Brown Sugar
• ½ cup Date Sugar
• 1/3 cup Molasses
• 4 Eggs (large/70gms per egg)
• 12 oz Chopped Dates (400gm)
• Water (enough to cover dates in a measuring cup to 800ml total volume)

Photos and recipe copyright by Colleen (tummyluv) in Ria’s kitchen.