Crumbly Walnut and Date Bread

It's intresting how my brain throws out recipes when my I am faced with challenging traffic engineering problems at work. Today I was modeling a study area for some future year roadway network when I thought of making this walnut date bread. My simulation model failed to yeild the expected results but this recipe that I tried after I got home surely turned into a huge success.

Last Monday I ate a banana nut bread at Starbucks, the taste of which is still on my tongue. That is probably why I was thinking of making some light fluffy bread on my next trial. Oh, by the way, for all the coffee lovers, whenever you are at Starbucks don't forget to try their caramel toffeenut latte/cappuccino. You may not find it on their menu. Pratik thinks this is the girliest coffee ever, so he says that guys should not get it, but then again, Pratik drinks half of my latte everytime.

Here is the recipe-

Crumbly Walnut and Date Bread---

Ingredients:

1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped
1/2 cup dates, chopped
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking power
1 cup water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter
1 large egg (Egg can be substituted for 1 tsp of baking power)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F

1. Mix the dates, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add 1 cup of boiling water to this mixture. Mix well and allow it to cool upto room temperature ( 1- 1.5 hours).
2. Lightly toast the walnuts. Let cool and give a rough chop.
3. In a food processor, mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and baking powder.
4. Add the butter and process until the mixture is crumbly like breadcrumbs. Add the walnuts.
5. In a bowl whisk the egg and add the vanilla extract.
6. Fold the egg mixture and the cooled dates into the flour mixture and mix well.
7. Grease a 9x5x3 baking pan and place the above mixture into the pan.
8. Bake at 350 deg. F for 30-40 minutes. Bread is ready when toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean.
9.Let cool in the pan for a while and then turn over on a wire rack and cool completely.
10. Cut pieces of desired size and enjoooooooooooooooy!

I have this really bad habit of approximating ingredient quantities in all recipes. It is certainly not the right approach when baking. Also, baking time and temperature are very specific to the oven in use. Make sure you modify these little things while trying out any recipes.