Prune and Walnut bread

It's been a while since my last blog... so much happened that blogging was not the first thing on my mind... I am on a month's medical leave now, have used up 2 weeks since. Now I am feeling better, able to move about to clean the house and do the occasional baking and cooking....thank God!!!

This recipe was obtained from Nov 2006 issue of Delicious. The original recipe is a 'Apple, Dried Cherry and Almond Loaf':

- 1/2 cup (45g) rolled oats

- 300 ml milk

- 225g plain flour (I used organic wholemeal)

- 3 tsp baking powder

- 100g dried cherries

- 50g dried apple, diced

- 75g brown sugar

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 4 tbsp honey

- 1 egg, lightly beaten

- 1/4 cup roughly chopped almonds, plus 2tbsp extra to sprinkle on top

How to:

Put the rolled oats in a small bowl and pour the milk over them ans soak for 10-15mins.

Preheat oven to 180 C. Gease and line a 1 litre loaf tin with baking paper.

Sift the flour & baking powder into a bowl and stir in all the ingredients and mix well.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for about 45 mins or till the top is golden brown and cooked through. I use a skewer to test and made sure it come out clean.

Cool for 5 mins in pan, then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Modifications... as always...:)

Well, I don't have rolled oats, dried cherries or dried apples on hand.... so I omitted the oats, replace the cherries with dried prunes, and wolfberries for the dried apples. I soaked the wolfberries in the milk instead of the oats. Also replaced walnuts for almonds as I did not have sufficient almonds on hand. Make sure you toast the nuts before use to get rid of the raw smell.

The whole house was filled with the honey and cinammon aroma during the baking process... so shiok! It took my oven an hour to complete as my oven has a lower temp, but the result was worth waiting for...though the oats could have added an extra crunch to the bread, i did not really miss them. It was a good lunch substitute if you want something light, esp for me now, when I just want minimal cooking and something light and healthy to fill me up. :)