DATE PUDDING

2021 is already feeling different. I have been doing some things to make me feel like I have a little control on my life and they seem to be helping. I also started by volunteering at Hillcrest Thrift Shop yesterday. I could tell it had been weeks since I had been though because I got tired easily. It was a beautiful day yesterday for Jan 3 and it is supposed to be even nicer today. That will be nice.

The bad thing is New Year's Eve when I climbed up in the attic and sorted through some yarn, I said the next pretty warm day I would go back up there and do some more cleaning out. Guess what? That day is today. It is supposed to be sunny again and in the mid to upper 40s. Oh well, it needs to do done. Hopefully I am in a "throwing out" mood. The other day I tried going through a box of old saved recipes. It was not the day to do that though. My pile to keep was much bigger than the pile to throw out so I quit. 

I'm sure I have expressed my love of dates here before. The recipe I am sharing today is one I found that I had torn out of The Kansas City Star newspaper, January 13, 2016 from the Lucien Gray family. I had started to make it several other times, but always just put it back. I wanted to make something that wouldn't be a lot of for us to eat just ourselves.

This Date Pudding is so good and I especially like to add a little Butter Pecan ice cream with it. I wasn't sure what size loaf pan to use since the recipe didn't indicate the size. I think the 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 worked out fine though. If you also like dates, I know you will love this old-fashioned "Pudding" recipe.

DATE PUDDING

1     heaping cup seedless dates

1/2  cup pecans or walnuts + more for garnish, if you like

2     eggs

1     cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup pyure organic stevia blend)

16   saltine crackers

4     teaspoons baking powder

4     tablespoons milk (do not use cream or half and half)

1     teaspoon vanilla

Fresh whipped cream, for garnish or ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 inch loaf pan. Set aside.

Combine all ingredients into a food processor and

process on low speed until smooth.

Pour or spoon into loaf pan. (Recipes always say to "pour" and I always have to "spoon".)

Place loaf pan on top of a baking sheet to catch potential batter overflow as the pudding rises. (I included this as it was in the directions, but I had not problem. Maybe I used a larger loaf pan than they did since they didn't indicate the size of the loaf pan to use.)

Bake for about 30 minutes; do not bake it too hard. (I baked it for 30 minutes and removed it from the oven.)

When the pudding  cools, it will naturally "fall" in the middle. 

Serve with whipped cream and a sprinkling of nuts or a scoop of ice cream. (I ate butter pecan ice cream with mine, but my husband ate it with his yogurt and berries.)

Here is what my heaping cup of seedless dates looked like. I had to cut the date open to remove the pit and then just went on and cut thru the date to make two halves. I did mash the halves down in the cup to measure them. I think I had 13 dates but they were large ones.