This easy to make Healthy Date Loaf contains no refined sugars and is naturally sweetened with lots of juicy ripe dates and ground cinnamon spice. It's a healthy date cake recipe with only 8 ingredients that is quick and easy, lovely and moist, and can be eaten straight away or cut into slices and frozen in ziplock bags.
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This date bread is ideal for clean eating snacks throughout the week to pack into your lunchbox for morning break, or as an afternoon treat. Just like this Chocolate Date Cake with luscious Ganache!
Ingredients
- Wholemeal Plain Flour: Can be swapped with spelt or oat flour.
- Cream of Tartar and Bicarb: These are Leavening agents. Cream of tartar makes baked goods light and fluffy, while bicarbonate of soda helps the dough rise.
- Ground Cinnamon: Ground cinnamon adds warmth and depth to the flavor profile.
- Medjool Dates: Medjool dates, rich in natural sweetness and fiber, provide a sweet and chewy element to the dish.
- Milk: Milk serves to moisten the dough, contributing to a tender and flavorful texture.
- Eggs and Vegetable Oil: Eggs are the binding agent and vegetable oil provides moisture and tenderness.
Recipe Tips
- Use a silicone loaf tin and grease the tin with butter and line with baking/parchment paper
- Take the dates out of the fridge half an hour before you need them to let them come to room temperature. Use boiling water to soften dates for 10 minutes, then chop finely
- Don't overwork the batter, mix gently to combine and then spoon into the tin
- 5 minutes before it's due to come out of the oven, check to see if it is cooked by testing it with a skewer. If skewer comes out clean, remove from oven. Also it should be a light golden colour on top
- Don't overbake your healthy date loaf or it will end up being tough and dry
Dates are a great way to add natural sweetness to baked goods if you're wanting to avoid or even just eat less refined sugars. Also, if you don't like the taste of stevia or other natural sweeteners, this is a baked good you need to make as the only sweetener is the dates themselves.
This is definitely a healthy date cake recipe that is moist, low fat and free from refined white sugars.
Which Dates to Use?
Medjool dates are definitely my top pick for making this healthy date cake! They're larger size, soft and chewy texture, and a rich, caramel-like sweetness.
However if you don't have access to Medjool dates, Deglet Noor dates are a common alternative. They are smaller and slightly drier than Medjool dates but still provide a natural sweetness and chewiness to the recipe.
Deglet Noor dates are generally considered to be less sweet than Medjool dates so I'd recommend adding extra dates or even doubling the dates if you have a sweet tooth.
Tip
This date loaf recipe freezes well. Just cut into slices and pop into ziplock bags and store in the freezer for upto one month.
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This is a one bowl healthy date loaf which means its quick and convenient with minimal clean up. 30 minutes in the oven and you've got sugar free snacks for the rest of the week!
How Sweet is this Date Loaf?
Dates are free from added sugar and refined sugar, but they do contain naturally occurring sugars. They are a great sweetener substitute in baking plus you get the added fibre of the dates.
This date loaf is sweet if you're used to eating low sugar baked goods. If you're not, you might want to add one tablespoon of Monkfruit sweetener to satisfy your sweet tooth.
If you're a fan of dates, you might like these other recipes where I've used dates as a sweetener:
Date, Oatmeal and Ginger Cookies, Sugar Free Ginger Loaf Cake, Sugar Free Caramel Slice Bites, and Sugar Free Bliss Balls.
Recipe Add-Ins
- Add some sugar free chocolate chips
- Add ½ a teaspoon each of ground nutmeg and ground cloves
- Add ¼ cup dried cranberries, diced
- Add ¼ cup small dried organic blueberries
- Add a tablespoon of Chia seeds for extra protein
- Add ½ a cup of chopped walnuts for texture and crunch
A healthy date bread recipe is one of my favouite things to have with my morning coffee. This clean eating no added sugar version is still moist, contains fibre from the wholemeal flour, protein from the eggs and makes 8 thick slices.
Healthy Date Loaf
Ingredients
- 1½ cups Wholemeal Plain flour
- 1 teaspoon Cream of tartar - (See note 1)
- ½ teaspoon Bicarb Soda
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- 1 cup Medjool Dates - (See note 2)
- ½ cup Milk
- 2 medium eggs
- ¼ cup Vegetable Oil + 2 tablespoons
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/350 degrees F
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, add 1½ cups Wholemeal Plain flour, 1 teaspoon Cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon Bicarb Soda and 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon. Mix with a spoon to combine.
- Add ½ cup Milk, 2 medium eggs, and ¼ cup Vegetable Oil + 2 tablespoons, and stir to combine. Add 1 cup Medjool Dates (pitted and diced) and stir to combine again.
- Grease a silicone loaf tin with butter or oil and line with greaseproof paper.
- Pour in the cake batter and smooth over the top
- Bake in oven at180 degrees C/350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
- Let cake cool in the silicone loaf tin until it comes to room temperature.
- Remove from silicone loaf tin and discard baking paper.
- Option 1: Store in an air tight container at room temperature and eat within 2 days.
- Option 2: Cut into 8 slices and place into ziplock bags/airtight container and freeze for upto 3 weeks. To serve, let it defrost naturally or warm in microwave for 10-20 seconds and eat with a light spread of butter.
Notes
- Cream of Tartar is a leavening agent, readily available in the baking aisle of supermarkets. This recipe works best when using both Bicarb Soda and Cream of Tartar.
- The medjool dates should be at room temperature. Remove seeds and chop roughly into small chunks and measure out 1 packed cup.
- Level of sweetness: The sugars in this recipe come from the naturally occurring sugars in the dates. No other sweeteners have been used in this recipe and as such it may not be as sweet as you are used to. If you have a sweet tooth and prefer sweeter baked goods, I'd suggest adding 1 tablespoon of granulated sweetener such as Monkfruit.
- Substitutions: Sub wholemeal plain flour with spelt flour or oat flour. Sub vegetable oil with olive oil, coconut oil or avocado oil, or even unsweetened apple sauce if looking to make it lower in calories.
Nutrition
Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners. Calories have been calculated for your convenience using My Fitness Pal and are based on the ingredients listed in the recipe card.
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Karen says
I don’t own any silicon cookware. Would it be ok to cook the date loaf in glass or would metal be better? Looking so forward to making this.
Kim says
Hi There, A metal pan would be better if you don't have a silicon one.