Date-Apple Coffee Bread

December 2nd: 2nd post for December. I'm two for two...so far, so good.

I was bored with all my usual quick-bread recipes, and so I flipped open my nearly 20-year-old cookbook, latched onto the first recipe for which I had all the ingredients, and whipped it up to take to church today. I've never made this before (my loss), but I will be making it again. I tasted it when it first came out of the oven (what if it had been awful?), but it was much, much better the second day, as anything with dates usually is. It might even be better if it sits for two days (it's very moist), but I doubt we'll ever know.

The original recipes calls for peeling and coring the apples before shredding. Riiiiiiggghhhhtt. You go ahead and do that if you prefer--I just grate the apple, skin and all, down to the core. This is a little fussier than most recipes I make as it is, without the added trouble of peeling and coring apples that are only going to be grated after all that work.

You will need:

1 tbsp instant coffee
1 cup boiling water
8 oz dates, pitted and snipped (about 1 cup or a little more)
2-1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 beaten egg
1 cup grated apple
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (I left these out, but they'd be good if you have them on hand)
2 tbsp melted butter or margarine

Dissolve coffee in boiling water; pour over dates in a small/medium mixing bowl. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and soda. Combine egg, shredded apple, walnuts, melted butter and coffee-date mixture. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moistened. Pour into greased 9x5x3 inch loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes. Remove from pan after cooling ten minutes, and finish cooling on rack.

Eat. Savour. Repeat.

I've been missing out all these years. I wonder what random recipe I should try next?