No Added Sugar Date Loaf

In my search for sweet baking recipes that are ok to give my son, I came across this.  I think we have a winner.  Now don't fool yourself that no added sugar means no sugar; dried fruit has plenty but there is also a decent amount of fibre in dried fruit and a few other nutrients so better than the empty calories and tooth risks from sugar alone.  Still, probably best to serve this as part of a meal to avoid the mouth acid peaking with your little one.


I adapted this from a recipe I found on a website which cited it was from The Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook.  The original was a bit too sandal wearing for me being vegan and gluten free as well so I've made it more mainstream.

Date Loaf

Ingredients

225g Dates, chopped
85g Unsalted Butter
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
225g SR Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 Pint full fat milk
115g Sultanas
1/2 tsp Freshly Grated Nutmeg

Method

Put the oven on at 190 degrees C.

Put the dates and milk into a pan and boil until the dates start to soften.  Add the sultanas and the butter and boil together until the butter is fully melted.  Get your tin ready, I use a silicone loaf tin as it's easier and doesn't need lining.  Get all of the dry ingredients ready in a bowl and quickly mix in the date mixture then quickly turn out into the loaf tin (as the raising agents start to work because of the heat).  Bake for around 30 mins, you might want to check a little earlier or drop the heat a little as my one was a little overbrowned after this time but my oven is a bit dodgy.  It makes all the sound of a fan but I'm not convinced.

As this contains no refined sugar, I gave some to my son and he loved it.  It does taste like it must contain some brown sugar even though it doesn't.  I'd go as far as to say this is better than my bran loaf recipe (although that has the benefit of being a tiny bit easier to make.)

I've linked up this recipe to the one ingredient challenge;