Carolie de Koster entered this into our special occasion dessert reader recipe competition.
Ingredients
250 g | Pitted dates (Main) |
1 tsp | Baking soda |
¾ cup | Boiling water |
½ cup | Sugar |
½ cup | Butter |
1 ½ cups | Flour |
2 tsp | Baking powder |
¼ tsp | Salt |
½ tsp | Cinnamon |
¼ tsp | Mixed spice |
2 | Eggs |
1 cup | Chopped nuts, pecans, walnuts, macadamias, brazils or mixed nuts |
2 | Apples, peeled and diced (Main) |
Brandy sauce
½ cup | Water |
½ cup | Sugar |
1 Tbsp | Butter |
1 tsp | Vanilla essence |
¼ tsp | Cinnamon |
½ cup | Brandy |
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a rectangular pie dish (± 28 x 20 x 3 cm) well with butter. Cut up the dates finely and place in a mixing bowl with the baking soda, boiling water, sugar and butter. Mix thoroughly to combine, mashing the dates a little to break up and cool for 5 minutes.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spices, add the date mixture, eggs, nuts and apple and stir well to combine.
- Turn the batter into the dish, spread evenly and bake 25 minutes or until firm and thoroughly cooked. Lower the temperature towards the end of baking if the top browns too much
- Meanwhile, place the ingredients for the syrup, except the brandy, in a small saucepan and stir over moderate heat until the sugar has melted. Simmer 8-10 minutes or until the syrup has reduced by about ¼ and stir in the brandy.
- Remove the baked tart from the oven, cool a few minutes and spoon over the syrup. Leave to stand until the syrup has been absorbed. Cut into neat slices and serve slightly warm as explained above or cool and reheat when required.