D is for Date Delight, H is for Hard Sauce. (E was for Eggs in Hell, F will be Foo Yeung, and G will be for Gingerbread)
The name Date Delight sounds pleasant and happy in a rather British way. It also sounds like it should be related to Turkish Delight. According to Fisher's commentary, Date Delight "makes a pleasant hot dessert which is definitely a pudding." So, it is related to the British! As in Figgy Pudding, Christmas Pudding, etc. And like Figgy Pudding, it is served with a lemon sauce, what Fisher calls Hard Sauce, which has rum in it.
Among the many things Date Delight called for was crumbs. Crumbs. What kind? Can I use Graham cracker crumbs? But I was saving my Graham cracker crumbs for Magic Bars. So I used my food processor and crumbed some bread. I also only had dried dates on hand and used half the amount called for in the recipe.
It smelled delicious while baking, but came out cakey. Rather like a cinnamon coffee cake, but dotted with dates, which I now prefer to raisins after this experiment.
Fisher says its an expensive dish. Hmmm, I disagree there as I had almost everything on hand but the dates. She also says it should be the main point of a meal and should be served after soup and salad, is a winter thing, and that men like it more than do women. I tried to make it the main point and served it as dessert after salmon, green beans, and a carrot/cheese/rice casserole side dish. I agree with Fisher, it is a winter thing, mainly because of the spices used in baking and it's relationship to puddings. And my husband did say it was good. However, back to that main point of a meal ... after eating it, my husband had ice cream, a Purdy's chocolate, Boy Scout popcorn AND a beer. So for him, it turned out to be more of a side dish.
As for the Hard Sauce. That didn't work out at all. Maybe it was because I didn't properly cream the butter and powdered sugar or maybe those two things cannot be creamed, but I ended up throwing it out. Instead, I turned to a similar recipe in How to Be A Domestic Goddess which mixed powdered sugar and lemon juice, but didn't call for butter or shortening. And I poured in--a little too fast--some Southern Comfort (since I don't have rum).
All I really tasted was the fruity Southern Comfort. Poured on the Date Delight, it reminded me of my Grandmother's neighbor's famous Rum Cake, but with more flavor.
Would I make it again? Possibly. If I had leftover dates. I wouldn't bother with the Hard Sauce.
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Wish I had known you needed dates. I have some "fresh?" ones in the refrigerator that are at least a year old from Aunt Hazle's fruitcake. At this point I can save them for you. As for hard sauce, I thought it was supposed to be with brandy. The mincemeat was supposed to have a brandy hard sauce as well as brandy mixed in. All I had was peach brandy which I did put in the mincemeat but decided we were more into vanilla ice cream than hard sauce. As far as eggs: if you had ever seen me flip an egg, you would have suggested I stick with scrambled. I did do a quiche now and then, but your meat eating brother and father treated it as a side dish rather than a main meal. Love, Mom
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