This easy recipe for grain-free, date honey bread has the spongy texture of Sara Lee pound cake without all the refined carbs and sugar.
When I was in grade school, my breakfast was sometimes a slice of Sara Lee pound cake topped with peanut butter.
This was not a healthy breakfast, by any means!
But, I do have a soft spot for the light, spongy texture of pound cake even to this day!
If you love the consistency of pound cake as I do, chances are you will enjoy the similar “tongue feel” of this date honey bread, aka “pound cake”.
This recipe does have a hint of coconut flavor from the grain-free flour, but it is not overwhelming and does not detract from the enjoyment of the light texture and overall flavor.
Bonus! This pound cake is very filling. Only one slice fills you up especially if you top it with butter!
Note that when I originally created and published this recipe in 2010, I used raw honey as the sweetener.
Since then, I’ve learned via research that using honey for baking is not ideal nor even traditional. In fact, heating honey is considered toxic in Ayurvedic cooking.
Thus, I now make this recipe using “date honey”, known commercially as date syrup.
Like raw honey, date sugar/syrup are on the “allow” list for the full GAPS diet, AIP, or Specific Carbohydrate diets.
An important caveat is that the GAPS Intro diet does not allow dates or other fruit. Honey is not permitted on the intro levels either.
I LOVE a slice of this date honey pound cake with some healthy peanut butter on top (my favorite brand) reminiscent of my childhood.
My husband and kids like a slice with a big slab of butter.
Date Honey Pound Cake
Easy recipe for grain-free, date honey bread that has the spongy texture of Sara Lee pound cake without all the refined carbs and sugar.
Ingredients
- 6 eggs preferably pastured or free range
- 1/2 cup coconut flour sifted
- 6 Tbsp coconut milk or dairy cream
- 5 Tbsp butter melted, preferably grassfed
- 6 Tbsp date honey
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
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Whisk together the eggs, butter, coconut milk, date syrup, sea salt, and vanilla.
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Mix coconut flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and then sprinkle this dry mixture in with the wet ingredients a bit at a time.
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Once everything is mixed, keep whisking until the batter is very smooth with no lumps. This may take a few minutes.
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Pour into a glass loaf pan and bake at 400 °F/204 °C for 20-25 minutes or until loaf starts to slightly brown on top.
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This recipe makes 1 medium honey bread loaf, 12 muffins, or 24 mini muffins. Cover leftovers on the counter and refrigerate what you won’t eat in 2 days in a sealed container.
Sarah Faith, I do not soak my coconut flour because of this statement from "Living with Phytic Acid" by Rami Nagel (article in Wise Traditions Journal from March 2010 – until there is more information on this, I am choosing to not soak:
PREPARATION OF COCONUT FLOUR
We do not have enough information about the preparation of coconut flour to say whether soaking reduces phytic acid, but as with other phytic-acid containing foods, the likelihood is that it is at least partially reduced.
Sarah, I just was reading over at Kimi Harris' blog (nourishing gourmet) that one is supposed to soak coconut flour as well, as it technically is from a seed and contains the same antinutrient properties as other seeds. I was so disappointed to hear this as I had been using coconut flour as my "last minute, I didn't soak anything last night" type breakfast solution. What are your thoughts on soaking coconut flour?
I think it may be a good idea to soak the coconut flour first. Have you tried this? I've been following the extensive series of posts on soaking and sprouting on The Nourishing Gourmet blog, and the comments say that Sally Fallon recommends soaking coconut flour.
Thanks for this delicious recipe — I look forward to making it!
-Beth
Hi Melissa, you are absolutely right – thank you for pointing this out. These ingredients can be left out for folks on an extremely strict interpretation of GAPS or SCD. Some folks heal enough after a few months to be able to eat these but must still be off grains.
This recipe sounds great, and I plan to try it. But, I wanted to mention, as someone who followed the SCD strictly for almost two year, there are a couple of ingredients that are not SCD legal. The stevia and baking powder are not allowed when following the SCD.
I made this and it rose beautifully, moist, beautiful texture. WONDERFUL!!! We started eating it warm right from the oven! It tastes EXACTLY like Sarah Lee Pound Cake! We tried to not eat the whole thing at one sitting – it was hard! I will serve this to guests as a desert! Thinking about adding cocoa to it next time. THANK YOU!!!
Hi Dawn, this type of bread doesn't rise much if at all. If you find it too thin, then just bake in a smaller pan.
Sarah, I made this bread today and loved it! I do not have stevia but found it to be sweet enough w/ just the honey. I did have one problem. It barely rose at all. Was only about 2" high, if that. Any ideas why this may have happened?
I made this bread for my family for strawberry shortcake. We love it! The only problem for me was that the bottom was moist almost like flan and the top more like cake in our trial run. The second batch was better, I think my daughter added less milk the second time. It was a hit with my mother in law!
Hi Gaby,
Here is a link to the 3 day food logs for the WAPF Board Members. Several of these folks consume 60%+ fat each day. I hope you find it helpful!