This is an adaptation of a recipe from the “4 Ingredient” series created & compiled by Kim McCosker & Rachael Bermingham. One of the books in the series is specifically for the gluten intolerant (I’m not, I just choose variety in my diet) and I had a play (as I usually do) with the ingredients. It was a ‘Date Loaf’ recipe and I halved the ingredients because I simply didn’t have enough dates. It’s on page 60 if you decide you’d like to check out the original recipe. Here’s my version (and remember, it’s halved): 

Ingredients:

190gm dates, goji berries & natural sultanas (any dried fruit without sulphur dioxide added – preservative code 220)

¾-1 cup boiling water

heaped tablespoon of cacao powder

½-¾ cup GF self raising flour

Method:

Throw the dried fruit into a metal or heatproof glass bowl and add the boiling water. Cover and soak overnight.

Preheat oven to 160ºC. Mix the cacao and flour well into the soaked dried fruit then pour into greased (with coconut oil!) and lined loaf tin. Bake for approximately 45 minutes.

Notes:

The original recipe called for flaked almonds to ‘top’ the loaf prior to baking, and while I didn’t really want to do this, I considered throwing chopped walnuts (or the like) into the mixture…that would’ve tasted great and added more texture. In the photo, it appears that I’ve sprinkled desiccated coconut over the ‘slab’ but it’s actually psyllium husks! Thanks to my current obsession with fibre, I ended up lightly sprinkling about a dessert spoon of them over the top instead of the almonds. Desiccated coconut would probably taste better and one ‘problem’ with psyllium is that you need to increase your water intake or they may do the opposite of what one might expect – and actually bind you up!