dates - natures chocolate!

If you know me, then you will know that I have had a long and delicious love affair with fresh dates! Fresh dates are to me what chocolate is to any normal woman! Along with their sweet and caramel flavour, they also offer your body some valuable nutrition. Dates are a great source of Potassium to assist in a healthy nervous system, fiber to aid digestion and are also high in energy to give you a healthy energy hit when you need it.
Perfect as a snack, dates can also be the hero in sweet desserts and savoury tagines.
My sudden inquisitive interest for all things middle eastern was heightened recently due to my little sister's announcement to work in Jordan next year and pursue her Journalism degree. Like all older sister's, protective instinct kicked in and I have been googling and reading up on all things Arabic ever since! Other than the Middle Eastern style ingredients and foods I adore. As sudden realisation struck, was I really that unworldly or uneducated on the middle east? Jordan then started jumping up everywhere, and in last weekend's Escape lift out, Jordan was a feature and described as the 'Switzerland of the East'. The anxiousness started to ease...
Reading the 'Proef' newsletter, a quirky and amazingly creative cafe that I often frequented in Rotterdam. I stumbled upon this recipe for Bread and butter pudding from CookbookArabia. With my sudden interest in Arabic foods I thought I'd give it a go. My love of dates and the Orange blossom water, which I had purchased a month previous was the perfect beginning to this sweet Arabic dessert to end our meal last night!
Recipe Review:
Not quite as tasty and sweet as I had hoped. If you decide to make this recipe I have made a couple of alterations, only as that is how I like it... I cooked the puddings in individual ramekins and added some sugar & vanilla to sweeten & flavour slightly. Then add a light dusting of cinnamon to finish making this dish even more delish.
Bread & butter pudding w dates, almonds & orange blossom
made 6 ramekins
ingredients
300g fresh dates, sliced length ways, seed removed
1 teaspoon orange blossom water
1 cup (250ml) milk
1 vanilla pod, sliced length ways

3 x 60g eggs
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 carton (300ml) pure cream (pure cream has no additives like gelatin, used for thickening)
3/4 pkt (430g) Turkish bread, pulled apart roughly into 3cm pieces
2 tablespoons butter, melted
75g almond meal
2 teaspoons cinnamon
50g flaked almonds, roasted until golden

what to do
Pre-heat oven to 180C for 15 minutes.
Add dates to a large bowl and cover with orange blossom water, and 1/4 cup boiling water. Stir and set aside.
Heat milk and vanilla gently in a saucepan over medium heat until small bubbles start to appear around the edge of the saucepan. Remove from heat and allow vanilla to infuse for a further 5 minutes. Strain, reserving milk.
Beat eggs and sugar until light and creamy.
Add cream and combined eggs and sugar to the warm milk mix until combined.
Return to the mixture to the heat and cook until thickened (mixture coats the back of a spoon).
Add bread pieces, dates, butter and almond meal to a large bowl.
Pour over the milk mixture, making sure all the bread is covered and soaked in the egg mixture.
Spoon evenly into greased ramekins. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.
Remove ramekins from oven and sprinkle with golden flaked almonds*.
Serve with vanilla ice cream.
TIP * Crush the roasted almonds in a mortar and pestle for a finer texture.
love amie x