Angela Lansbury's Walnut Date Bread

No matter how you cut it, (OR what you call it! cake? loaf? bread?) Dame Angela's Walnut Date creation is a durable recipe for the ages.

I baked one up five days ago (more on that later!) and since that time it's sat loosely covered on the kitchen counter for morning-snack-with-coffee duty and is still lovely and moist as I type.

Cheers and thanks a lot, Dame Ange!

I did this great bake at the behest of my friend, famous author Jenny Hammerton of London. She led an absolutely smashing "cook-along" for her newest book, "Murder, She Cooked," with a bunch of us "fan-gelas" over Zoom! More on that later. Now, without further ado, the recipe!

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ANGELA LANSBURY'S WALNUT DATE BREAD

2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup boiling water 1 cup chopped pitted dates 2/3 cup walnut pieces 1 cup granulated sugar 1 egg yolk 1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Strawberry cream cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Generously oil a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and dust with flour. Place butter, baking soda, boiling water and dates into a heatproof mixing bowl. Let cool. Mix in walnuts, sugar, egg yolk, flour and vanilla extract. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan onto rack to cool. Slice and serve with strawberry cream cheese and freshly brewed tea.

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Your batter should look like this, pre-bake!

And then, one hour later . . . VOILA! A delicious loaf/cake/bread is born!

Chef's note: as long as your oven is properly calibrated, the bread might smell like it's done 10 or 15 minutes before time's up. Test with a skewer/toothpick/knife and you will likely note you need the rest of the baking time to finish up the center.

And look, it's our illustrious bake host and cookbook author, Jenny! We had so much fun on the Zoom with her. Be sure to order her new book here! (It includes a recipe tested by yours truly!) And subscribe to her fabulous newsletter that celebrates endless other celebrity recipes here! Thanks for everything Jenny! You take the cake!