Do you ever get an idea in your head and it just won’t go away until you do something about it? Well that’s why I’m making you look at sharing this date bread recipe. I have been obsessed! Obsessed I say! I have been thinking about date bread (and specifically gluten free date bread with coffee and ginger in it) for a few weeks.
The origin of the obsession goes back to the fact that my daughter is turning seven and she wants a fancy tea party for her birthday party. I have been collecting ideas for it on Pinterest and studying our favorite Fancy Nancy books.
One of the ideas in Fancy Nancy was to make little date bread canapés with banana as a tea party finger sandwich. My daughter loved the idea, and frankly I did too. [Hidden agenda, my in-laws are coming over in the morning too to see the birthday girl, so I figured if I made a couple of date breads, I could kill two birds with one stone.] And that’s all it took and I started to obsess.
This is how my swirl of recipe developing obsession went:
We read Fancy Nancy, I think Hmm, I love date bread.
I should do that for the party for sure.
I didn’t have my own healthy date bread recipe.
Yet!
And then I started thinking about how I could make it super awesome.
Oh, I know! I could make it with coffee to soften the dates and give it rich flavor without extra calories.
And I’d really like to make it SPECIAL and add some candied ginger, because did you know that candied ginger and dates are like totally BFFs?
And then and then and then….
Then I was like, well, if I’m going to do all this, I should definitely make it friendly to all of my peeps out there who are gluten free. Right? Because I am a team player, right?
And coconut oil is all the rage these days. So I’ll have to use that for sure….
You get the idea. A little cray-cray.
So that’s what I did. And a few tests later, and my date bread is in your face I have a date bread of my own to share with you. No need to hold your Fancy Nancy Pinkies Up! Gobble it up my friends:)
Gluten-free date bread with brown rice flour and almond meal. Sweetened and studded with soft Medjool dates and flavored with coffee and ginger.
Ingredients
- 1 cup halved/pitted soft Medjool Dates (about 5 ¼ ounces, pitted)
- 1 cup hot coffee, can be decaf
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted if necessary
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup brown rice flour
- 1 cup almond flour, any clumps broken up
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda, sifted
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped toasted pecans
- ½ cup pitted chopped soft Medjool dates
- ¼ cup chopped soft candied ginger
Instructions
- Place halved dates in blender pitcher. Pour coffee over the dates and let sit until 70 to 90 degrees, about 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.
- Puree dates and coffee until smooth. Add egg, coconut oil, honey and vanilla and puree until smooth.
- Whisk rice flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and salt in a large bowl. Break up any clumps. Pour in date mixture. Stir until completely smooth and moist. Fold in pecans, chopped dates and candied ginger. Transfer to the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with only moist crumbs attached, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cool on rack in pan about an hour. Turn out and let cool completely before slicing.
This looks delicious! I love using candied ginger, but I’ve never tried a gluten-free bread like this. And great pictures, too!
GF baking is not as scary as it seems. Because there is no gluten, the batter doesn’t get overworked easily like some quick bread can. Thanks so much David!!!
Oh, how I wish I had a slice of this to eat right now as I sip my coffee. Anything with candied ginger and I’m totally in. 🙂
Ha! I am thinking the exact same thing. I am saving it for the party though.
First of all, I love that your daughter wants a tea party! Second of all, this bread looks 100% perfect! Love, love, love!!
I have to admit I was pretty excited my daughter wanted a tea party too. Thanks so much Ari.
This sounds SO GOOD. I feel like I can almost smell it wafting through the screen! I am in love with dates, and have never thought of putting them in bread before. Such a wonderful idea, Katie!
Thanks Eva. It does smell great in person for sure. I love dates too:)
Wow, it looks great for a gluten-free bread!
Thanks so much Mireya! And thanks for stopping by.
Katie,
I really want to try this but the kids REALLY don’t like coffee. Any substitute suggestions?
Dom
I would try eiher hot apple cider or boiling water.
Yum! Looks great. I’m going to make this for my mom. Thanks for sharing!:)
I hope she likes it Puja.
Hi Katie! What a yummy recipe and blog 🙂 Made this with boiling water instead of coffee (I was feeling lazy) and it was delicious! But I’m sure coffee would have enhanced the color as well as the flavor. I have a Helsinki, Finland based food blog (in Finnish) where I emphasize gluten free baking whenever possible – would you mind me posting the translated recipe there with links to your original of course? Thanks for inspiration!
Thank you so much Heini. I really appreciate you kind words and I am so glad you liked the recipe. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your asking permission about this recipe. I am not sure how the whole translation thing works, but my policy is that I ask that the recipe not be republished. Because I make my living by selling my recipes, I cannot allow unpaid licensing. If you would like further clarification please feel free to email me at katie AT healthyseasonalrecipes DOT com.
Hi Katie,
I want to try to make this tomorrow, but don’t have any brown rice flour and my son’s teacher is deathly allergic to nuts. I do have some coconut flour (but have found it more confusing to bake with) and oat flour. Do you think the oat flour will do?
That’s a tough one Jamie, but I think you happen to have everything you need. Oat flour tends to really soak up a lot of liquid, and can come out gummy if it is too wet. Coconut flour on the other hand can be brittle at times, so I think a 50/50 ratio of both will be a great combo. Plus the flavor of the coconut flour will be even better. I would use 2 1/3 cups total, because both of these flours are more absorbent than the above combo. Having not tested it myself, it is hard to say for sure, so please let me know how it comes out. PS. Make sure you let it cool completely before slicing.
I made this yesterday. Its DELICIOUS !!!
thank you so much for sharing. I think I will make it for gifts for xmas 🙂
I am going to make it for Christmas too Bree. I am so so so glad to hear back from you. I really appreciate it, and I am so glad you liked it!
Always looking for recipes that I think will work salt free. This one was great!!! Thanks
I am so so happy to hear you liked it Phyll! Thank you so much for reporting back, and great tip about omitting the salt!
This looks wonderful. I can’t wait to try it.
Do you have any suggestions as to what I could use instead of coconut oil? Thanks.
Valerie, So sorry it has taken me so long to reply. Coconut is solid at room temperature, so you’ll want to substitute another saturated fat for it. I would recommend using half melted unsalted butter and half organic canola oil.
Gluten Free Date Bread Please tell me where I can find mejool dates or can I use another kind? Can you tell me another kind I can get. I want to serve this bread at my next get-together with the girls. “Awesome”
Medjool dates are really lovely and soft, unlike the type that comes in a box pre-chopped and coated with sugar. Most often they are in the produce department at good supermarkets or at a health food store. Sometimes you can find them in the bulk section of a health food store, or with the natural dried fruits.
Hi,
Recipe looks good. You listed 2 types of flour. Is it necessary to have them both? What will happen if I only use 1 type of flour? Thanks.
Hi, I called for the rice and almond flour to improve the texture. The rice flour is more stable less crumbly than the almond flour since it has starch in it, so if you had to choose one over the other, I would choose rice. Because it is more starchy you would need less of it than the almond flour. Having not tested it before, this is a guess, but I would start off by increasing the rice flour to 2 cups plus 1 tablespoon and drop the almond flour off completely.
Hello Katie,
You had me at dates soaking in coffee, so earlier this afternoon I made your delicious date loaf exactly as you called for…and guess what? Delicious! My boyfriend is still ohhing and ahhing about it…and he is not keen on GF baked goods. This bread has so much going for it! It’s a keeper for sure! Thank you for sharing your recipe and the inspiration behind it.
Thanks for the recipe. I made this with the ginger omitted and a few more dates and pecans instead. I probably overcooked it slightly – it wasn’t in the oven for quite 50 minutes but I think it probably would have done better if I had covered it half way through as it is a tad burnt on the outside/dry on the end – alternatively my oven may have been a touch hot. It’s very tasty. Perfect as I try and incorporate dates in my diet as I am 40 weeks pregnant and trying to encourage the baby to make an appearance (apparently dates help).
This looks amazing! I only cook with coconut flour and almond flour, so do you think I would be able to sub 1 cup coconut flour for the 1.5 cups of brown rice flour???
Thanks,
Amelia 🙂
You certainly can try Amelia. Having never tried it myself I can’t say for sure, but I think that ratio sounds like a good start. Let us know how it goes.