Gluten Free Date Bread With Coffee And Ginger
by Katie Webster
September 5, 2013 (updated 5/23/23) Jump To Recipe
I have been thinking about date bread (and specifically gluten free date bread with coffee and ginger in it) for a few weeks. And now I have an awesome Gluten-Free Date Bread to share with you!
Table of contents
Why We Love This Gluten Free Date Bread
Once I realized that I didn’t have my own healthy date bread recipe I started thinking about how I could make it super special. Oh, I know! I could make it with coffee to soften the dates and give it rich flavor without extra calories.
Next came some candied ginger, because did you know that candied ginger and dates are like totally BFFs? Then I decided I should definitely make it friendly to all of my peeps out there who are gluten-free.
And after a few tests I have a delicious and extra special date bread of my own to share with you. Gobble it up my friends!
Key Ingredients For This Recipe
Medjool Dates
Medjool dates are a fresh fruit that can be found in the produce section of the grocery store. They have a caramel flavor and a soft chewy texture unlike dried dates, which are smaller and much firmer and sweeter. They are a little higher in calories, but are packed with antioxidants, nutrients and fiber
Coffee
Coffee is used to soften the dates. The bitterness of the coffee complements the sweetness of the dates and adds a balanced richness to the bread.
Brown Rice Flour and Almond Flour
Brown rice flour and almond flour are great for gluten free baking. Brown rice flour is stone ground from high quality whole grain brown rice and has a nutty flavor. Almond flour is made from ground almonds, is low in carbs and has a slightly sweet flavor.
Candied Ginger
Candied ginger is made from gingerroot that has been cooked until soft and then lightly coated in sugar. It has a chewy texture and a spicy sweet flavor.
Additional Ingredients
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted if necessary
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 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
Step By Step Instructions For This Gluten Free Date Bread
Step 1: Combine the dates and coffee.
Place halved dates in blender pitcher. Pour coffee over the dates and let sit until 70 to 90 degrees, about 30 minutes.
Step 2: Preheat oven and prepare the pan.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.
Step 3: Puree the dates and coffee and add remaining wet ingredients.
Puree dates and coffee until smooth. Add egg, coconut oil, honey and vanilla and puree until smooth.
Step 4: Combine dry ingredients, add date mixture, fold in remaining ingredients and transfer to pan.
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.
Step 5: Bake, cool and serve.
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.
FAQs and Expert Tips
This date bread can be kept well wrapped at room temperature for 2-3 days. It can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Yes, with their subtly sweet caramel flavor they are one of the best substitutes for highly processed sugar.
Gluten free baked goods can often be dry, so adding adding additional butter, oil and/or fruit purees can help add moisture to the final product.
Additional Gluten Free Baking Recipes To Try
- “Brownies masquerading as cookies” is the description for these gluten free buckwheat chocolate cookies.
- This gluten-free applesauce bundt snack cake is one of those recipes I have made over and over again.
- This gluten-free Peach Blueberry Crisp is high in Omega-3 fatty acids and sweetened with maple sugar!
- Get ready to try this gluten-free breakfast bread perfect for toasting, to have with preserves or an egg. Yum!!
- Don’t miss this Maple syrup sweetened gluten-gree clafoutis with Italian Prune Plums baked in a cast iron skillet.
- Try healthy Carrot Banana Bread next time you are in a baking mood.
- You may forget who you are and where you are, and all your worries for a moment when these Gluten-free Maple White Chocolate Blondies come out of your oven.
- I love this recipe for gluten-free sweet potato praline mini bundt cakes and I am so happy you’ll get to try them too!
- This skinny flourless chocolate cake will satisfy your deep dark chocolate cravings with only 217 calories per serving.
Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!
Happy Cooking! ~Katie
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Gluten Free Date Bread with Coffee and Ginger
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
Description
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.
Notes
How to store bread:
This date bread can be kept well wrapped at room temperature for 2-3 days. It can be frozen for up to 3 months.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: Snack
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 241
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated Fat: 7 g
- Carbohydrates: 31 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 4 g
Keywords: Gluten free date bread, Gluten Free Date Nut Bread, Gluten Free Date Cake, Date Cake with Almond Flour, Date Bread
Katie Webster
Katie Webster studied art and photography at Skidmore College and is a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute. She has been a professional recipe developer since 2001 when she first started working in the test kitchen at EatingWell magazine. Her recipes have been featured in numerous magazines including Shape, Fitness, Parents and several Edible Communities publications among others. Her cookbook, Maple {Quirk Books} was published in 2015. She launched Healthy Seasonal Recipes in 2009. She lives in Vermont with her husband, two teenage daughters and two yellow labs. In her free time, you can find her at the gym, cooking, stacking firewood, making maple syrup, and tending to her overgrown perennial garden.
I’m just getting ready to make this. What size of loaf pan works best? Thank you.
You can use a standard loaf pan- 1.5 qt https://amzn.to/3l6YsI0
Katie This date bread is wonderful. Love the punch of crystallized ginger and soaking dates in coffee. Perfect level of sweetness. Oh so good. Will make again! Thank you,
Lynne
★★★★★
Delicious! I can’t get brown rice flour, so I used some cassava flour instead, and some carob powder, which went with the flavors very nicely. I also blended in a knob of fresh ginger with the dates and coffee initially.
★★★★★
This recipe is excellent !
I don’t have rice flour, but do have tiger nut flour, which I used as substitute (fine).
I also do not use candied ginger.
The other ingredients & directions were followed precisely.
The directions are clear.
The results delicious !
Thank you, Katie Webster
★★★★★
I am happy to hear it worked out. I have to experiment with tiger nut. I am intrigued!
Hello Katie,
I’m just looking for a sweet bread to make,
On the healthy side, and I came across this recipe it sounded really good! So I thought I’d give it a go
I was never a great cook or bake her, but I am Definitely becoming a great baker and cook as I have a lot of time on my hands, LOL
I replace the rice flour with banana flour which was a great choice! Everything else I kept as is. Miss Debra☺️Ty
★★★★★
I am so glad to hear you liked it! Thank you!
Made this today. Had just enough of both flours in my pantry, but I did not have pecans, candied ginger or enough dates. I had just the one cup necessary to puree with the coffee, Had about a cup of cranberries left over so used them at the end for the additional dates that should have been added. I substitued walnuts for the pecans and just used ground ginger root for the candied ginger. It came out looking and smelling perfect, but it tasted a wee bit dry. Any suggestions on what to do to make it moister next time, I actually think the cranberries were a good compliment.
Thanks for coming back to let me know how it went. I think the full amount of dates would make the difference since they really make it moister. You could also try subbing in a couple tablespoons of quinoa flour for the rice flour next time.
Fantastic recipe! Made a few changes, but it still turned out great. I tend to have bad luck with GF breads/baked goods. They typically turn out rock hard or gummy. No issues with this one, thank you!
Substitutes:
– Rice Flour for Bob’s 1-1 gluten free flour only because I didn’t have rice flour (kept Almond Flour as recipe noted).
– Eliminated Candied Ginger and Ginger Powder, I’m not a fan of the taste.
– Added additional 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder.
Delicious flavour, not too sweet, and a perfect bread texture. This is a go-to recipe from now on!
★★★★★
Hi Julie. That sounds great. I love the idea of using cinnamon instead of ginger. And so good to know about the 1:1 gf flour working. That’s great news! Thanks for rating. I really appreciate it.
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.
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).
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.