Too Many Recipes! 4. Apricot Bran Loaf

This is the fourth in a series in which I will endeavour to cook every recipe (one each week) from a recipe book I started compiling 27 years ago when I was 15 years old.  You will find all the background for this courageous and calorie laden endeavour right here

After our rather sugar laden past few weeks, this cake came as a bit of dietary relief.  It is the sort of recipe that I generally look for - something with a bit of fruit in it so that I can pretend that it is healthy and not feel so bad if I eat a little too much.  And this one has bran too so it has to be kind of a healthy option. Yes?  It has a nice bit of sweetness to it without being loaded with sugar, thanks to the apricots. This is not the recipe though, to cook up if you're looking for indulgence - unless you are on a really, really strict diet and this cake actually looks like an indulgence.  If that's the case, then go for it and enjoy.  

It kind of made me think of ploughman's lunches and mugs of ale taken by the fire whilst watching a bit of Morris Dancing.  Can't say exactly why but there you have it.  Perhaps that should be a clue for this week's music link.  Well, it wasn't going to be but here you go anyway - a bit of Morris Dancing from Oxford and I have to say that it does kind of capture the mood of this cake.  I can well imagine being in the street and watching this, then popping in to a local tea shop for a cup of tea and a slab of Apricot Bran Loaf.  The music link I intended to put up was the song I was singing to myself while I was baking and that, dear reader, is this one from They Might Be Giants.  I love this song.  I love They Might Be Giants.  I love that my children also like their music and so we all get to enjoy it together.

But I digress.  Choose your link wisely, in a different tab of course, so you can read and listen at the same time and we shall proceed.

Apricot Bran Loaf

Ingredients:

120 g dried apricots

1tsp bi-carb soda

1 cup boiling water

60 g butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 1/2 cups bran  (I used oat bran as I couldn't find wheat bran when I went shopping)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius (375 degrees Fahrenheit) and grease an 8" x 4" (20 x 10cm) loaf tin, lining the base with grease proof paper.  A little aside here, if you read last week's recipe, you may recall that I had a bit of a flashback about my mum re-using brown paper bags to line her cake tins so this week I tried it and have to report that, not only was it  extremely satisfying but it worked a treat as you will see in the above photo.  

Chop the apricots up into small-ish pieces, depending on how chunky you want your cake to be and put to soak in a small bowl with the bi-carb soda and boiling water for half an hour.  

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then beat in the egg.  Add walnuts, stir in apricots and the remaining liquid, the sifted flour and bran.  Mix well to produce a fairly stiff cake mixture.  Tip it all into your loaf tin and bake for around 40-45 minutes.  

Leave in the tin for 5 minutes or so before putting it on to a rack to cool.  Slice off chunks and spread with butter. (We didn't bother with the butter.  It was good enough without but you could if you wanted to.)

What's to like about this cake:  

• It's a really easy, fuss-free recipe.  Just remember to soak the apricots beforehand.
• A good cake to have on hand for a fairly healthy bit of morning or afternoon tea.

What's not to like:

• It was a bit on the crumbly side once it cooled down completely.  Perhaps it just needs to be eaten while it's still a bit warm.