GoodFor
Spiced Butternut Loaf
Cook time: 40 minsPrep time: 40 minsServes: 12
Good Food, Good Company is our series of easy, delicious recipes from some of our favourite cooks. Food to cook, eat and share in good company. Dare to be different and step outside the banana loaf box by trying this ridiculously delicious spiced butternut loaf!
The comforting butterscotch aroma wafting from your oven on a winter’s day will have you salivating long before you take your first bite. Believe me, you will have never tasted a loaf as moist and moreish as this one, nor with such an impossibly light crumb and perfect balance of nutty caramel sweetness and warming spices.
This spiced butternut loaf will become your new best friend and go-to recipe for breakfast, dessert and every snack in between. So I suggest that when you come across some really good butternuts, make a large batch of the purée and freeze it down into 300-350 g portions so that you can skip the first step and be 30 minutes closer to eating that first warm slice straight from the oven smothered in lashings of butter.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
1x 600 g butternut, cut in half lengthways
½ cup extra virgin coconut oil
½ cup pure Canadian maple syrup
1 tsp. Heilala vanilla extract
3 eggs, whisked
1 tsp. flaky sea salt
Method
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220°C fan bake mode.
To prepare the butternut purée, place the butternut halves cut side down on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes or until the flesh is cooked and the skin is golden.
Once cool enough to handle, peel off the skin, remove the seeds and put 300-350 g of the butternut puree aside.
To prepare the loaf, reduce the oven temperature to 180°C fan bake mode, grease a loaf tin with coconut oil and line it with baking paper.
Put the pumpkin purée, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla into a food processor and blend until silky smooth.
Transfer to a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and gently fold until just combined.
Transfer to the tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
Set aside to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve with coconut yoghurt and edible flowers or even better, whilst still warm with lashings of butter / almond butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon. It also toasts really well.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week, just make sure you bring the loaf to room temperature before serving.
