Mary Berry's Date and Walnut Loaf

Did you see the second episode of the Mary Berry Story on BBC2 this week?  What an amazing lady, and a bit of a sad episode this week.  Loved Mary's cooking through the story though, the Bread and Butter Pudding and that icing she put on the cake this week....truly indulgent.  I looked at our cooker window today and thought Mary keeps her a lot cleaner than we do!  I also had to tell my husband off I brought some chopped walnuts and he ate them in the week.

Another exciting instalment for the blog is that I have been granted permission from Nigel Slater to use some of his recipes and I have had back the Canadian permission for the Nigella recipes I want to use, just got to get the last one from America to give me worldwide permission so i can publish on the blog....looking forward to that as I cannot wait to cook one of my chosen recipes.

Anyway today I am cooking Mary Berry's Date and Walnut Loaf......now I am doing two and unfortunately only had one loaf tin so did a round one for the other.

Here is the recipe.

3oz (90g) soft butter or margarine, plus extra for greasing
8oz (250g) dates, stoned and roughly chopped
1/4 pint (150ml) boiling water
3oz (90g) caster sugar
1 egg
8oz (250g) self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3oz (90g) walnuts roughly chopped

2lb (1kg) loaf tin

Lightly grease the loaf tin with butter and line with greaseproof paper*.  Put the dates into a bowl and pour over the measured boiling water, and leave for about 15 minutes.  Combine the butter, sugar, egg, flour and baking powder in a large bowl and beat until well blended.  Add the walnuts and dates, plus the soaking liquid and stir to mix.

Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 180°c, (160°c fan, Gas mark 4) for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours until well risen and firm to the touch.  A fine skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean. 

Leave to cool in the loaf tin for a few minutes, then turn out to a wire rack and peel off the lining paper.  Leave to cool completely.  Serve sliced and buttered if wished.

* I find the presized loaf tin liners good for this.

Mary's recipe is one of a large collection from her book Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook published by Dorling Kindersley.