By One week until Christmas and Liam has decided that the tree is personally offensive to him in that it contains things he cannot have. He crawls directly to it every time he's put on the floor and attempts to retrieve ornaments with the systematic focus of a quality control audit. We have moved all the low ornaments to the higher branches and replaced the lower branches with shatterproof ones, which means the tree looks slightly odd from the bottom two feet up, like it has a different aesthetic opinion about itself below versus above. This is fine. Everything is negotiated now.
I finished my Christmas shopping on Tuesday, online, with Liam asleep in the carrier on my chest, which is the apex of efficiency: he gets a nap, I get the shopping done, the apartment doesn't need to be navigated. I've recommended this approach to everyone on my floor and it has been received with the skepticism it deserves from people who have never tried to buy gifts with a baby in the house.
Made my grandmother's brown bread on Sunday for the Fitzgeralds, who expect it now at Christmas. Linda Fitzgerald texts me every year in early December to ask if I'm bringing brown bread to Christmas dinner and I say yes and she says "good" and that's the extent of the negotiation. This year I made two loaves—one for the Fitzgeralds and one for us—and Liam had a small piece of the heel, well-buttered, which he gummed with the appreciation of a nine-month-old who has discovered that some foods require no puree.
My grandmother’s brown bread is its own thing and I’ll make it every year until I can’t, but this walnut date loaf is what I bring when I want something that feels a little more festive and a little less “I made this at 11pm with a baby strapped to me”—even when that’s exactly how it was made. The dates give it a natural sweetness that holds up through a whole holiday dinner table, and the walnuts make it feel substantial enough to stand alongside everything else. It’s the kind of loaf that wraps well, travels well, and makes people think you planned further ahead than you did.
Walnut Date Loaf
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 12 slices
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pitted dates
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Soften the dates. Combine chopped dates, boiling water, and baking soda in a small bowl. Stir briefly and let stand for 15 minutes until the dates are soft and the liquid has cooled slightly.
- Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in vanilla.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Mix the batter. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the date mixture (liquid and all), beginning and ending with flour. Stir just until combined—do not overmix. Fold in chopped walnuts.
- Bake. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50–55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
- Cool before slicing. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice when fully cooled for the cleanest cuts.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 248 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 37g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 148mg