I still remember the nervousness with which I had approached the slick coffee machine in the break room at Auckland University, where I was a student in the early 2000s. There was only so much a Kannadiga girl could know about one, having only known the humble, stainless steel drip-filter at home, which brewed the best coffee she had ever known to exist.
And then there was an array of accompaniments to tackle - none so familiar as Parle-G - laid out on a spiffed up table: mosaic-textured muffins, crumbly cookies and comely little savoury pies. It took me a while to get accustomed to these novelties down under, but soon enough, I knew just how much creamer to use in my coffee, and just how much to save from my measly weekly allowance so I could treat myself to a nice little quiche at Little & Friday, as opposed to the cheese burger and onion rings at Burger King I could afford most of the time.
In fact, there wasn't a lot a few dollars could buy me - the perpetually famished student - on an average. My classmates would sometimes pack homemade sandwiches or silverbeet muffins for me to function as mid-day snacks . And sometimes, a warm slab of a moist, textured cake would manifest magically on the table that was meant for coffee alone, at another quaint little cafe 'round the bend from the campus. While the quiches with their caramelized onion and feta flavors, left an indelible, mark, to be revisited later with an obsessive fondness, it's the cake that lingered on with web-footed intensity, in aftertaste and in memory.
A recent visit to those familiar streets and cafes made me want to re-create the cake. And I did manage to do it, with a few homespun additions, and a little help from the King Arthur Flour recipe repository. Was it consumed with the veritable fervour of the once-famished student? Without a doubt. With whole grain flour, dates, nuts and seeds, this bread could well be a gift from Demeter, but it effortlessly shuns tradition, and treacle, possibly to the disapproval of the Brits, who started it all. Here’s the recipe
Date and Nut Cake
Ingredients
Crushed dates: One and a half
Raisins or dried cranberries: a fourth of a cup
Butter at room temperature: Three tablespoons
Thick curd: One tablespoon
Baking soda: One teaspoon
Salt: To taste
Jaggery powder: Half a cup
Honey: One tablespoon
Hot chocolate (stirred in water): One cup
Large egg: One .
Vanilla extract: One teaspoon
Baking powder: Half teaspoon
Multigrain or whole wheat flour: One and a half cups
Crushed oats: Half cup
Chopped nuts: One cup
Pumpkin seeds: One tablespoon
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease an 9” x 5" loaf pan. In a large bowl, add the dates, raisins/ cranberries, butter, curd, baking soda, salt, and jaggery powder. Pour in the honey, hot chocolate and stir well. Set aside for about 10 minutes to cool.
Add the egg, vanilla, baking powder, flour and oats, beating gently until smooth. Fold in the nuts without stirring too much.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and tap it gently on the counter.
Sprinkle the pumpkin/ sunflower seeds on top. Bake for 45 minutes or a few minutes extra, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.Cool completely before slicing. This bread stays good (in a cool place) for up to 5 days, and also freezes well.
