littletree bakes...chewy date and walnut traybake

Hello blog friends, did you have a good weekend? Yes? Mine was pretty good as it involved a little baking and a lot of laziness...which is the recipe for happiness in my book! The recipe I'm going to share today is one I have made plenty of times from the book '1Mix, 50 Cakes' by Christine France. It's a really handy little book with all sorts of cake recipes from classic sponge, cupcakes and traybakes to fancy gateaux, all based around the same basic ingredients.

The original recipe is actually chewy date and sesame tray bake but I've just chucked in some walnuts to mix it up a bit! You can easily leave out the walnuts or add in any other nut you prefer. Anyway enough rambling, here's the how to...

Ingredients

• 6oz/175g Soft Butter
• 6oz/175g Brown Sugar
• 6oz/175g Plain Flour
• 1+1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 3 Eggs
• 1tsp Vanilla Extract
• Handful of chopped dried Dates
• 3-4 tbsp of Orange Juice (enough to cover the base of a small saucepan)
• Handful of chopped Walnuts
• Sesames Seeds for sprinkling on top

Let's Bake!

• Preheat your oven to 190c. Grease and line a rectangular tin roughly 12x9 inches.
• Put your chopped Dates and Orange Juice in a small pan and heat gently, stir occasionally until the liquid has been absorbed. Leave to cool. (This can take about 5mins so use this time to measure out your other ingredients, just keep an eye on the dates!)
• In a large bowl mix the Butter and Sugar until smooth. Gradually add in the Eggs, Flour, Vanilla and Baking Powder until you have a thick fluffy mix.
• Now add in your nuts and cooled dates. Stir through the mix carefully.
• Spoon into the prepared tin and smooth out, sprinkle on the Sesame seeds.
• Pop in the oven for about 20-25mins or until golden and cooked through. Check with a skewer to be extra sure.
• Leave to cool and cut into slices. Enjoy!

Pictures taken by me!

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