This delicious wholemeal date and nut loaf worked really well all week in our house with a variety of fillings and toppings like cheese, jam, smoked salmon, slices of leftover beef and a few others. It kept really well and was so delicious for breakfast with freshly made runny eggs.

This delicious wholemeal date and nut loaf recipe can be seen in my latest Cottage Life video where me and wee Mary make bread, tour the greenhouse area, plant seedlings, feed the hens and tidy up a little.

This bread works delicious for lunch, for picnics, topped with thin slices of cheese and chutney and also for breakfast with crispy fried bacon and mushrooms and runny poached or flipped once eggs. My fave brekkie!

Your going to love this recipe because…

The dates works so well in this bread and add just enough sweetness for it to be enjoyed as a savoury or sweet treat!

Its wholesome and packed with nutritious wholefoods which makes it a great addition to the kids breakfast or evening snack!

This bread is so very easy to make and this recipe gives enough for two loafs meaning you can actually have one in the freezer ready to go the following week.

The nuts add a lovely crunch to the bread and work really well with the slight sweetness of the loaf.

If you like the sound of this delicious recipe you may enjoy pairing it with some delicious Scottish Crowdie cheese or some lovely Scottish Smoked Salmon Pate. Both of these lovely recipes below would make delicious additions to a family picnic.

Tips for making this recipe –

If you just want the one loaf you can split this recipe in two for one large sized brown loaf or you can make the full recipe and make one loaf and some lovely fresh rolls. We loved making the rolls and they worked well for small sandwiches. They are made in the same way but before the second rise you just need to make small equal sized balls instead of the large round one. You also need to adjust the cooking time to suit and there are details in the instructions.

You can swap out the dates for raisins if you wish to try those instead. Some dried apple may also work well instead of the dates but will probably not be as sweet.

If you don’t have a bread mould don’t worry you can use a small well oiled boil to let your dough hold its shape and rise a second time.

Try to let it rest and cool a little before slicing it…believe me I know its difficult!

I used my kitchen aid to knead the dough. I’m not gonna lie I’m not the biggest fan of kneading and have lots of other things to do in the kitchen while the kitchen aid is doing the job. Just make sure your kitchen aid is up to scratch before you use it for dough. I have killed a food mixer before with dough lol! It needs a lot of oomph!

This bread is quite dense but you may get a larger rise from a long second rise time. I’m not an expert at making bread but the way I made this recipe worked out a treat for us!

What you may need fae the cupboards –

A powerful food mixer with a dough hook. I used my kitchen aid but be careful if kneading in a food mixer as I have actually broken a food mixer before. Just make sure it is powerful enough and up to the job. My kitchen aid always does the job well.

You can use a bread scoring knife before it goes in the oven to score a pretty pattern over the top. There are benefits to doing this but I’m not so skilled in that department yet.

A large mixing bowl is required to bring everything together or you can use your stand food mixer for the lot if you prefer.

Wholemeal Fruit and Nut Loaf Recipe

Ingredients –

(makes two loafs or one large loaf and 12 rolls) (half the recipe for one large loaf)

50g Fresh Yeast

800ml Lukewarm Water

2tbsp Honey

2tbsp Olive Oil

1 Egg

10g Salt

50g Oats

600g Wholemeal Flour

700g White Flour

100g Dates

100g Raisins

100g Chopped Mixed Nuts

Recipe Instructions –

• Crumble the yeast into the lukewarm water and add the honey, olive oil, egg and salt. Whisk lightly together and set aside.
• Measure out the oats, wholemeal flour, white flour, dates, raisins, chopped nuts and add to the water mixture.
• Mix everything together well and knead together for 10 minutes in a stand mixer. If you want to knead by hand oil your hands slightly and knead on a floured surface until the dough is smooth and very stretchy. Try not to add additional flour even if it feels sticky.
• Place the well kneaded dough inside an oiled mixing bowl and leave to rise for 1 hour in a warm place.
• Preheat the oven to 200c (Fan Oven). Punch back the dough after an hour lightly and knead for a further five minutes.
• Loaf – Shape half the dough into the bread ball shape and place in an oiled bowl or bread mould for a further 30-45 minutes in a warm place until roughly doubled in size.
• Tip onto a greased baking tray and pop in the hot oven at 200c (Fan) for 10 minutes then turn down the heat to 180c (Fan) and bake for a further 20-25 minutes.
• Rolls – Split half of the dough and keep splitting in half until you have 12 small bread dough balls. Roll out each piece and place together on a baking tray with a little space from each other to allow room to rise. Leave the baking tray with the rolls in a warm place for 30-45 minutes or until roughly doubled in size.
• Bake the rolls in the oven for 5 minutes at 200c (fan) and then turn the heat down to 180c (fan) and bake for a further 10-15 minutes.
• Remove the bread loaf or rolls from the oven and turn out onto a cooling wrack.
• Try not to slice the bread until it is a lot cooler. Its hard I know!
• Enjoy your bread with butter, fried eggs and bacon for breakfast, jam, nut butter, pate etc