Monday 14 May 2012

Baking: butternut squash poppy lemon cranberry loaf


Show me a cake recipe that uses grated/pureed veg or fruit and I'm sold. I'm not deluded enough to convince myself that a slice of banana bread, carrot cake or zucchini bread would count as 1 portion of my 5 a day (how awesome would that be!) but I can't help loving any cake that keeps fresh for a few days without drying out. When I came across a Fresh from the Oven challenge I knew I had to take part. This month's challenge calls for a fruit breakfast bread and is hosted by La Cuisine de Sarah. While perusing various recipes I came across this pumpkin loaf and I knew the search was over. First of all, it uses butternut squash and we know how I feel about this beautiful vegetable. Secondly - poppy seeds and lemon! Exciting. And finally - it's easy to make and modify. After deciding that adding a few handfuls of dried cranberries and orange fruit flakes (hey, who said they only belong in kid's lunchboxes?) can only add to the flavour and make the bread more moreish I rolled up my sleeves and started baking.


To make this delicious bread you'll need:

225 g pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed
3 tbsps full fat milk
175 g self raising flour
1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
120 g caster sugar (the original recipe calls for 150 g but I decided to reduce it slightly as the cranberries are quite sweet)
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
50 g unsalted butter, cubed
2 tbsps poppy seeds
zest of 1 lemon
2 handfuls of dried cranberries
1 small packet of orange fruit flakes (I used these)

Please ignore the fact that the egg is missing from the line up of ingredients pictured above. I have no excuses. I forgot (but I added it to the cake mix!)

Start by preheating the oven to 180 C/160 C fan. Grease a loaf tin and line with a strip of baking parchment.


Boil cubed butternut squash/pumpkin until soft (this will take about 10-15 minutes), then drain and leave to cool.


When it's cooled down puree it in a food processor or use a hand blender. Transfer the pulp into a mixing bowl, add the egg and milk and mix.


Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a food processor, add cubed butter and blitz until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add it to the puree and gently stir with a spatula. Add poppy seeds, lemon zest, fruit flakes and cranberries and fold them in.


Spoon the batter into the tin and bake for 45 minutes until golden and risen. Cool on a wire rack and eat!


As I expected, the loaf is really moist, with hints of tartness from cranberries and lemon zest; poppy seeds are a nice touch and add a bit of texture. I imagine this bread will stay fresh for a few days (I say 'imagine' because mine barely lasted a day - me and my husband destroyed most of it as soon as it was cool enough to eat and I ended up baking another one as I promised to bring it to the office for my workmates to taste! It's delicious and easy to make - I'm already thinking of using the same mix to make muffins :)


2 comments:

  1. Everything about this loaf appeals to me. I can't get poppyseeds here but think I'll have to bring back some from the UK just to make this.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sally, thanks for your comment! Poppy seeds can probably be skipped in this recipe, but they add a nice crunch! Whereabouts do you live - I'm intrigued about which country doesn't have poppy seeds :)

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