pine nut sweet loaf

When I first came across recipes for quick bread, I was puzzled why it was named "bread" when the ingredients did not include yeast.

Subsequently, I learned that quick bread is a type of bread which uses leaveners such as cream of tartar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

Cakes, muffins, pancakes, cornbread, etc are considered quick breads.

I came across a recipe for olive oil sweet bread in the 20 August 2009 edition of the Today newspaper. I decided to use sunflower oil instead of olive oil as I did not have extra virgin olive oil at home and I did not want to use the regular olive oil (which is denser).

Other than the substitution in terms of the type of oil used, I also made some variations to the recipe.

According to the newspaper article, the recipe would yield a fragrant sweet bread. My verdict? The loaf that came out from my oven was indeed sweet and fragrant. This is the first time that I have used pine nuts to bake cake/bread. I have so far only added pine nuts to pasta sauce that I have cooked. I am inspired to create other goodies using the pine nuts, such as cookies.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup castor sugar

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sunflower oil

1/4 cup raisins

grated zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup pine nuts

extra pine nuts (for topping)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and line a loaf pan with baking paper. Set aside.

3. Sift the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

4. Beat the the sugar, eggs, milk and oil and whisk using an electric mixer or a hand whisk.

5. Stir in the raisins, lemon zest and pine nuts.

6. Fold in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon and stir until the batter is well mixed.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle the top with some pine nuts.

8. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.