Malted Date Cake

This rich spicy cake is made with germinated wheats as a part of Nowruz celebrations. Nowruz activities symbolise rebirth, growth, and the link between humans and nature. Nowruz, the first day of spring, is known as the Persian new year and has been celebrated by divers communities over 7000 years.

Malting

For malting, the wheat is first soaked in water for 2-3 days and then spread out on malting plates to germinate. During this process enzymes are activated which convert the starch into sugar. When the wheat has started to shoot, the germination has to be stopped by drying it. The dried wheats is ground into a fine flour.

Ingredients

Dough

1 Cup all-purpose flour

1 Cup malting flour

¾ Cup lukewarm water

2 Tablespoons sugar

50 Grams butter

1 Teaspoon salt

1 Teaspoon active dry yeast

1 Tablespoon mixture of ground ginger, cumin, turmeric, and fennel seeds. ¼ teaspoon of each.

A pinch of ground nutmeg and cloves

Filling

2 Cups pitted dates

50 Grams butter

1 Teaspoon salt

½ Teaspoon ground cardamom

½ Cup chopped walnuts

1 Teaspoon rosewater

Directions

Dough

In a mixing bowl add water and dry yeast and wait until the yeast is dissolved.

Add all dry ingredients and use spiral dough hook of a stand mixer to mix the ingredient at low speed until a dough is formed.

Cover and leave in a warm place until the dough is double in size.

Filling

Melt the butter in a cooking pan, add dates and cook over low heat until creamy. Stir occasionally.

Add cardamom, walnuts, and rosewater and mix well.

Let to cool at room temperature.

Building

We will build up the malted date cake with one layer of dough go under, one date filling at the middle, and one layer of dough on top.

Grease the pan, cut one parchment paper and lay it over the bottom of a rectangular 13-by-9-inch or a round shape baking pan covering all sides and brush it with butter.

Split the dough into two pieces and spread out each piece to form two layers of 1 centimetre thick to fit to the baking pan.