All-day Breakfast Loaf

Recipe lovingly adapted from ‘make-ahead breakfast loaf’ in Family, Food and Weekend Feasts by Janelle Bloom.

My mum has a strong dislike for all things fruitcake, due to an unfortunate over-fruit-caked childhood…but she loves it when I make all-day breakfast loaf.

It’s entitled ‘All-day’, because I could seriously eat this all day. It’s super scrumptious. Whilst your tastebuds will think this is cake, your waist will not be neglected, as it is with notorious café items, cleverly labelled “bread”, albeit being cake.

There are a lot of ingredients, but once you get everything out and prepared, it is relatively straightforward to create baking magic!

When making this I’m a little more generous with the amount of spice added, for who can resist the fragrant smell of cinnamon and nutmeg? And, perhaps a few extra fig or craisin manage to get themselves into the saucepan also…

Ingredients

200g roughly chopped dried figs

200g roughly chopped dried dates

100g Sultanas

50g Goji berries

50g Craisins (dried cranberries)

1 tsp Bi-carbonate Soda

1 tsp Ground Nutmeg

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 Eggs

¼ cup Olive Oil

2 cups Self-raising Wholemeal Flour

¼ cup Ground Linseeds (flaxseeds)

30g Pepitas (pumpkin seeds) + Extra for top

30g Sunflower seeds + Extra for top

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C/170°C fan-forced.

Place dried fruits and 2 cups water into a saucepan on medium-high heat, and bring to the boil. Boil for approximately 4 minutes, until water is half absorbed, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile whisk eggs and oil in a small jug and set aside.

Place flour, linseed, pepitas and sunflower seeds in a large heat-safe bowl, mix together, and set aside.

Take fruit off the heat and cool for 5 minutes before adding the sifted soda and mixing well. After bubbling has subsided, mix in the spices. Once cooled for a further 10 minutes or so, thoroughly stir in the egg mixture.

Then, add this mixture to the flour, and mix until just combined. Place mixture into a 20cm x 20cm, lined and spray-oiled loaf pan. Spread evenly and sprinkle with a little (or a lot) of the extra seeds, and lightly press these into the mix using the back of the mixing spoon.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean (unless of course you hit a bit of juicy fig).

Notes

Enjoy for breakfast, morning-tea, lunch, afternoon-tea, dinner, supper, um…pre-breakfast, midnight munchies….?

I like mine with a cup a hot peppermint tea, and for a treat with a drizzle of maple syrup. Also, great to stop you craving chocolate before dinner-time comes around.

Happy baking.