Just Baking

Yum yummy, I love new bread recipes. This one has a very smooth texture, which is the trademark of quickbreads. Quickbreads differ from cakes, which are made by creaming butter and sugar and eggs, and from breads made with yeast. Quickbreads are often associated with “afternoon tea,” a tradition started by the Duchess of Bedford in the mid-19th century. It is said that the duchess could not wait from lunch till dinner (don’t we know the feeling!), so she requested a pot of tea with bread and small cakes. Very likely, finding it boring to eat and drink on her own, she invited her ”aristo-mates” and started a trend.

In the quickbreads family card pack you will find scones, muffins, soda breads, teacakes, and other fruit or veg loaves such as pumpkin and zucchini. So your pack of cards is virtually endless. Dead-easy to make, perfect for beginners, can’t really go wrong, remember to sift the flour and make sure that the oven is preheated to 180C (350F/Gas 4) - that is all. Ah! and mix the ingredients in the order the recipe tells you, quick breads allow neither anarchy nor cosmic order.

Vanilla Currant Loaf

250g plain (9z/ 2cup) (all purpose) flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

60g (2 ½ oz) cold unsalted butter, chopped

115g (4oz/ ½ cup) caster (superfine) sugar

75g (2 ½ oz/ ½ cup) currants

1 large egg

170ml (5 ½ fl oz/ 2/3 cup) milk

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

Sifted icing (confectioners’) sugar, for dusting, optional

Butter or cream cheese, to serve

• Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Grease a 21 X 7 X 8-cm (8 x 4-inch) loaf (bar) tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Using your fingertips, lightly rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
• Stir in the sugar and currants, then make a well in the center.
• In another bowl mix together the egg, milk, and vanilla; then pour into the well in the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir until just combined.
• Spoon into the prepared tin, smoothing the top. Bake for 45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
• Just before serving, dust with icing sugar if desired.
• Slice and serve with butter or cream cheese.

Vanilla currant loaf is best eaten on the day it is made, but can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 8 weeks.

Recipe from Leanne Kitchen’s The Baker.