Saturday, April 25, 2009

Recipe: Fruit Teabread

I love food and trying out new recipes, but as I've said before, I don't have the patience to blog about them. Usually.

But now that I'm at my parents' and the planning of daily tasks and menus is handled by my mother, my creative juices seem to be flowing stronger. Plus, with a proper oven here, I can fully indulge in my first culinary love - baking! So as I set about making this Fruit Teabread, I decided to put in the extra effort and share this recipe here because:

a. its incredibly easy and no-fuss: you don't need to bring out electric beaters / food processors, just simple hand mixing will do.

b. its very versatile: instead of the fruit, you could put dates or nuts like chopped almonds / walnuts, or you could do fruit and nut, or chuck it all and go wild with chocolate chips!!!

c. though the name says 'teabread', its closer to a cake, great for kids' tiffins or evening snacks (I made this one for my dad's teatime snack).

d. the way my mom showed me to make this, its healthy too!

FRUIT TEABREAD


DRY INGREDIENTS

- 300 g whole wheat flour (atta)
- 50 g oats
- 100 g unrefined sugar (read the Notes at the end of the post)
- 150 g dried fruit (or nuts etc. I used mixed peel, dried blueberries & cherries)
- 5 level tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt

WET INGREDIENTS

- 300 ml milk
- 60 ml ordinary vegetable oil
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- Few drops food colouring (totally optional, but the kid in me LOVES coloured cakes, so :D)

This makes 1 900 g loaf.

METHOD

1. Line a loaf tin with wax paper, or grease it with oil. *

2. Mix all the dry and wet ingredients separately.

3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ones in.

4. Mix ONLY to the point where all the dry ingredients are coated. DO NOT overmix this. Also mix everything only when you're ready to bake; if you leave the batter standing too long before, the efficiency of the baking powder reduces.

5. Pour batter into prepared tin, and bake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour 25 min or till golden and pulling away from the sides.

6. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

* My loaf tin struggles to release the finished product, hence wax paper makes our life a lot easier. If your baking dishes are more well-behaved, just greasing them will be fine.

NOTES

1. This recipe was taken from the Good Housekeeping cookbook. The original calls for 350 g plain flour (maida) and 275 g sugar. But since my dad's diabetic, we try to make such dishes as nutritious as possible, without compromising on taste. And so I used lesser whole wheat flour (300g) to accomodate the oats (50g) as well. I drastically cut back on the sugar, as the dried fruits I was using would also add an element of sweetness, and it turned out sweet enough. But you can absolutely use the entire prescribed quantity of sugar, or lessen it and then add some honey / golden syrup into the wet ingredients.

2. The use of oil, instead of butter, is another plus on the health factor.

3. VERY IMPORTANT: The baking time listed was as per the original recipe. Ovens vary tremendously ....... my loaf was done in 50 minutes! Given the quantities, I think this teabread should take at least 30 min in most ovens, but do keep an eye on it from then on. If a skewer / toothpick inserted into the centre of the teabread comes out clean, its ready.

10 comments:

  1. I love this..... but I have to lose 10 lbs, so I am gonna have to pass...

    How are you and the baby?

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  2. Agnes - you need to lose weight??? You seem to be so slim already from your pictures!!! Baby & I are doing just fine, thanks! I can feel it move very often now :D

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  3. Hey.....it looks good!!!!!

    Will try it.

    LOL@ cake stubborning hanging onto the caketin. I have a frying pan like tht;-D.

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  4. Reflections - it tastes better than it looks :D My sympathies on the frying pan!!!

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  5. There is a party in my tummy! so yummy, so yummy.....

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  6. Yummo! *drool*

    Shalom, Can I mail you my snail mail address, please.

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  7. Preethi - glad to cause the festivities :D


    Solilo - sure you can, but be warned, these baking impulses are just that, impulse.....they tend to go just as quickly as they come :P :D

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  8. it loose yum!...i'm on weight loss plan babes....how to eat this :( and i also cannot eat eggss :(. bUt yes i will experiemnet with this and use egg substitute.

    you know...of all the recipes that you've put up this will be the forst one that i will not be trying immediatley!

    howsss the baby...can you feel it move, kick, etc?

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  9. cool! I am a bad baker.....but i do try ......every now and then..... i tried baking banana bread last weekend..i have done it before but last week the bread came our rather un-moist. Do you think I may have added more flour and less of egg mixture????

    Take good care of yourself and enjoy the times :)

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  10. A - I thought you were a non-vegetarian! Are the no-eggs thing part of the diet? Let me know how it works out with the substitute and good luck with the weight loss program!!! On the baby front, yup I can totally feel the lil one moving....tends to be more active at night when I'm sleeping :D


    Moi - yeah, if bread / cake comes out dryer its coz the liquid ingredients were lesser. Don't increase the number of eggs, but try adding more milk or oil. Good luck :D

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