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Date and Walnut Quick Bread

A hearty, sweet quick bread that’s chock full of walnuts and dates with just a pinch of rum extract to give it a little extra flavor.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and wheat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 246 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 15
Prep10 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Brush a 9x5-inch loaf pan with a little of the melted butter.

  2. Put the chopped dates in a bowl, pour the warm water over them, and let them soak for about 10 minutes until softened. Stir in the baking soda and let the mixture stand while you continue.

  3. In a large bowl, beat the remaining melted butter with the sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract and rum extract.

  4. Stir the softened date mixture into the butter and egg mixture until combined.

  5. In a separate bowl, whisk the whole wheat pastry flour and salt together.

  6. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir just until no dry streaks remain. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

  7. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the eggs are set.

  8. Cool the loaf in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack to cool completely before slicing.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Walnut + wheattop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together246 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Vanilla + rumtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Dates + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (dates, butter, sugar, egg, rum, walnut, wheat):

  1. Figabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Coconutabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against dates, butter, sugar, egg, rum, walnut, wheat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).