fruit and nut loaf

fruit and nut loaf

• 16 Jan 2012

Do you have any blog crushes? My food crushes for 2011 were David Lebovitz and Ottolenghi, so don't be surprised if a few more of their recipes start appearing on the blog. This fruit and nut loaf recipe comes via David's blog. When Christmas was over I realised I had a whole stack of dried fruit and nuts left in the cupboard and wanted to use them before the nuts went stale. I normally store my nuts in the freezer to keep them fresh but I'd run out of space. I have a tiny freezer.



When I looked through the recipe, I had everything I needed including the dried apricots. When I opened the packet, I discovered I'd inadvertently bought turkish apricots instead of the local product. I never ever buy turkish apricots as they don't have any discernable flavour but when I'm not wearing my glasses I come home from the shops with all kind of surprises. Some good and some, not so good.



So back to the shops I went in search of the real deal. Before I made the cake, I piled all the fruit and nuts into a small loaf tin and it fitted fine so I decided to make a fruit and nut loaf rather than fruit bars or squares.



There's barely any cake mixture, just enough to glue the fruit together, so I mixed the whole thing with my hands before packing it tightly into the tin. The loaf took about an hour to bake and I couldn't wait to try a slice.



The apricots make the cake, so I'm so glad I made the return journey to the shops. As there's been so much over indulging recently and I've got some Christmas cake to eat, I've packed the cake and placed it back in the freezer to be consumed at a later date.

See you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian