Mm, mm -- now that's Writin' Rations™

Date Pecan Bread

• One packet/envelope of yeast
  
• Two, maybe two-and-a-half cups (or so) of filtered or bottled or otherwise non-chlorinated water, just warm to the touch
  
• Two cups (or so) of whole-wheat flour
  
• Three cups (or so) of plain white flour
  
• A teaspoon of salt
  
• Two or three tablespoons of sugar
  
• A cup of chopped pecans
  
• Two cups of chopped dates

Combine the water, salt, sugar, yeast, and one cup of the white flour in a big bowl (terra cotta or the like is better than metal; if you're using terra cotta/ceramic, you might want to warm the bowl first with some boiling water for two or three minutes, then dump the water into whatever dishes you're soaking in the sink -- no need to waste it).

Stir the stuff in the bowl gently, and then let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Add everything else and knead it with abandon for about 10 minutes. (I just leave the lump in the bowl and knead it right there -- much less messy.) If it's tough and crumbly, add water by the tablespoon (or cautious splash); if it's gooey and can't hold its shape, add flour (either more whole wheat or more white, or alternate them) by the half-cup.

No, really. The ten minutes aren't up yet. Keep kneading.

All right. Now cover the big bowl (foil, plastic wrap, lid, whatever). No matter what everyone says, there is no real need to coat the lump of dough with oil. That just makes it, the bowl, and your hands slimey, and who wants that?

Let it sit for TWO HOURS. Yes. Two hours. I never said this was fast food.

Form it into a loaf on a baking sheet (I find the use of baking paper makes detaching the loaf from the sheet when it's done much, much easier).

Put the bread in the TURNED-OFF oven (or a similarly draft-free place) for ANOTHER HOUR.

Take the bread OUT and start pre-heating the empty oven to about 175C or 350F, although precision of temperature is not mission-critical. Just somewhere in that neighborhood is fine.

Bake the bread until it's quite, quite brown and makes a slightly echoing tonk when you tap the top with your fingertip.

Let it sit for 15 minutes or so on a cooling rack before you slice it.

The very, very best thing to do with this bread is to put butter on it while it's still warm from the oven. The bread, that is, not the butter, why would you put butter in the oven?

Note: If you have a bread machine, you can use that to do the mixing and kneading. But bake it in the oven, on a baking sheet, in a beautiful I-made-this shaped loaf.