‘Finding the perfect tree’

Traditionally, we went to pick out our tree from my parents countryside house and today I’ve been decorating it all evening. I gathered a lot of inspiration from our Dubai trip, so I thought I would make a date bread on our tree hunt, as I bought beautiful Majdool dates from the market in Abu Dhabi. We drank cinnamon milk and ate the juicy bread while I gathered lots of twigs, moss and branches to take bake home, hubby was cutting down the tree. Even thought there is not much snow so far, the tree adds a wonderful scent and much Christmas spirit around the house.

Winter tea

• Warm milk
• Cinnamon Stick
• cardamom

Gently simmer all ingredients for about 20 minutes

Date Bread

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup dates
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup dried fruit/nuts
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup hot water

Directions

In a sauce pan, bring 1 cup of water to boil. Once boiling add the dates, butter and soda and let it gently simmer (about 15 minutes) until the dates become soft. Mush the dates with a fork and leave to cool. Once dates have cooled, stir in the beaten egg and hot water.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and dried fruit/nuts in a bowl. Then combine the date mixture to the dry ingredients until batter forms. Pour the mixture into a greased (and lined with parchment paper) bread tin and sprinkle a few nuts/dried fruit on top. Brush these with melted butter.

Bake in 160C oven for about 45-60 minutes