Chocolate-Date Bread
Submitted by lemygran
A semi-homemade chocolate date quick bread using date bread mix boosted with cocoa powder, topped with a semisweet chocolate glaze and scattered with walnut and pecan halves. Moist, nutty, and ready in about an hour.
YIELD
1 loafPREP
15 minCOOK
55 minREADY
80 minSometimes the smartest move in the kitchen is knowing when a shortcut actually makes things better, not worse.
A box of date bread mix gets stirred with cocoa powder, milk, and an egg for a loaf that’s deeply moist from the dates and rich with chocolate flavor. No creaming butter, no sifting multiple dry ingredients, no fuss.
The glaze takes it from quick bread to gift-worthy: melted semisweet chocolate and butter stirred smooth with powdered sugar and hot water, then spread over the top and decorated with walnut and pecan halves.
Slice it thin and serve with coffee, or wrap it up in cellophane for a homemade holiday gift that looks like you spent all afternoon baking.
Pro Tips
- Mix the cocoa into the dry bread mix first before adding the wet ingredients. This ensures even chocolate distribution with no pockets of dry cocoa.
- Cool the bread for 10 minutes in the pan before turning it out. Too soon and it falls apart; too long and it steams and gets soggy on the bottom.
- Glaze when the bread is completely cool. Warm bread will melt the glaze right off the sides instead of setting into a smooth shell.
- Press the nut halves into the glaze while it’s still tacky so they stay put when you slice.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat oven to 350℉ (180℃).
Combine date-bread mix and cocoa in a large bowl and mix until blended.
Stir in milk and egg until thoroughly combined into a greased and floured 8½ x 8½-inch loaf pan for 55 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in loaf comes out clean.
Cool bread 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.
Remove from pan and cool completely on rack.
To make glaze, melt chocolate and butter, stirring constantly over very low heat, until smooth.
Remove from heat. Stir in confectioners’ sugar until stiff.
Stir in water until glaze is smooth and of spreading consistency.
Smooth glaze over bread with walnut and pecan halves.
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