Walnut Date Bread with Brown Butter

I’m jumping on the brown butter bandwagon. Chefs and food connoisseurs have sung the praises of brown butter for ages, and rightly so.  Nutty, toasty and a completely different animal than regular butter. Especially if you bake with it.

Start with the best unsalted butter you can find. My organic butter was from Spring Hill Cheese Company, located in Petaluma, CA. If you live in the Bay Area, find them at the Oakland and Berkeley farmers’ markets. Spring Hill uses milk from Jersey cows to produce their butter and cheeses, which means they have a higher percentage of butterfat. Most American butters contain 80% fat, while creamy European butters have 85% fat. The hand-churned butter from Spring Hill contains just over the 85% mark. This makes their butter incredibly rich, and great for cooking because it doesn’t burn easily. Their happy cows feed on a forage mixture that includes homegrown ingredients like red oats and fava beans, and they don’t add chemicals or hormones at any stage of the process.

Equally important to the success of the bread is the quality of the walnuts and dates. My walnuts were from Dewey Farms in Yolo, CA. Harry Dewey and his wife Jane have a 350-acre farm where they specialize in walnuts, almonds and pistachios. Dewey walnuts are especially buttery, with a soft nuttiness that intensifies when toasted. I get these too at the Oakland farmers’ market, where Jane happily hands out samples to eager customers.

This was my first time stopping at the stand with the all the dates, and after tasting five varieties, I chose honey dates. Gooey, sticky and sweet like caramel – ideal for baking in a bread that may otherwise have been dry.

Actually, this bread was anything but dry. It was sweet, a little salty, dense but not heavy, and so good for breakfast the next day. Next time you bake a banana or breakfast bread, try this technique for browning and cooling the butter in place of regular butter. Just be sure to buy organic local butter from well-fed cows.

Ingredients for Walnut Date Bread with Brown Butter

(Makes 1 9×5 loaf)
1/2 cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter
1 cup walnuts
2 cups dried, pitted dates
1 cup organic white flour
1 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 organic eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of organic sugar (I used evaporated cane juice)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Extra virgin olive oil, for toasting walnuts

Heat up a small cast iron pan on low-medium heat and add the butter. When the butter melts, use a whisk to stir. It will start to foam, and once the foam subsidies you’ll notice the color start to change. It’ll also smell nutty. Keep a close eye on the color, you don’t want to burn the butter. When it reaches a medium shade of amber, pour the butter into a small bowl. Don’t leave it in the pan because it will continue to cook. Put the bowl in the freezer until the butter solidifies, about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325F. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and very lightly drizzle olive oil on top. Spread around with your hands to evenly coat. Toast for about 10 minutes or until they turn a darker shade of gold. Remove, and once cooled, roughly chop.

Sift together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Set aside.

Remove the butter from the freezer and empty into a large mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment of a mixer, cream together butter and sugars for 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Add the vanilla and continue mixing.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. You should do it in two or three batches. Mix until just incorporated. Using a spoon, slowly fold and stir in the dates and walnuts.

Butter a 9×5 loaf pan, and sprinkle it with flour. Pour the batter into the pan. The batter will be thick, almost as thick as cookie dough.

Bake for 45-50 minutes in the middle of the oven. The top will be golden when it’s done. Allow to cool before slicing.

Where I Shopped:
Walnuts: Dewey Farms, Old Oakland Farmers’ Market
Dried honey dates: Old Oakland Farmers’ Market
Unsalted Butter: Spring Hill Cheese Company, Old Oakland Farmers’ Market

Tagged as: dessert