ARF/5-a-Day #10: Grape Nuts Date Bread

After my earlier post on the 'non'-Grape nuts ceareal, several bloggers kindly shared serving suggestions for this whole-grain packed cereal! While I wouldn't mind eating it just for the sake of nutrition, real victory in my opinion would be to get Hubbie to eat the cereal too. We have moved on to other cereals which are tried and tested, so the grape nuts are at my disposal to be disguised in various forms. First up, I took-up a suggestion to add this cereal to baked goods. I found a recipe for Grape Nuts bread with dates here. As soon as I saw the recipe, my first instinct was to change a couple of things like eliminate the use of eggs and the white flour. Then, Hubbie's wise words came to mind. Though he uncomplainingly puts up with some of my weird kitchen productions, he always wonders "Why I would change some recipe without knowing how it would have turned out in the first place?". So, the only teeny change I made was to substitute 3 cups of flour for 2 cups of flour + 1 cup wheat flour :) I really couldn't help myself!

Anyway on to the weekly Anti Oxidant Rich Foods (ARF) event hosted by Sweetnicks... Sadly I missed last week, didn't get much time to blog. But I am back! Did you know that coffee is the number 1 antioxidant food consumed in America. Whether its effects are good or bad is up for debate. I would have expected chocolate to hold that top spot:)

Dates have the high amounts of antioxidant foods per serving size, and are ranked up there with the berry family. They are also considered to be rich sources of iron. Also, they are naturally very sweet, so great for deserts without additional refined sugars!

This bread recipe turned out great... and it quick (no double rising). Going further, I would like to experiement with using yeast to leaven the bread and eliminate egg, baking powder, and see if the recipe can withstand more whole wheat!

Grape Nut Date Bread
2 cups milk, scalded 1 cup Grape Nut Cereal	Pour hot milk over Grape-Nuts; cool.
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup sugar	Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add sugar to the mixture
1 egg, well beaten 3 tablespoons melted butter 1 cup dates, pitted and chopped	To the cereal mixture, add egg, butter and dates. Blend Well. Add dry ingredients, stirring just enough to moisten (I found it best to use hands) Transfer into a greased 9x5x3 loaf pan. Let STAND for 20 minutes and bake at 350F for 1 hour 20 minutes

The bread turned out well, with a nice crumbly crust. It seemed to go dry with time, after which we toasted it briefly to perk it up. All in all a good way to use up the cereal, though the dates were the reason I liked the bread :)