Hmmm, I seem to be falling behind on my recipe a week challenge. Country Bumpkin Chic is a busy bee at the moment trying to fit in work, horsey comps, keeping up a social reputation and fitting in the odd date here and there!
Anyway, I ended up getting up extra early on Tuesday (6.15am!!!) to try and bake before work, which all went according to plan until the cooling process where I ran out of time.
I’ve made a slight adaption to the original recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery which included pecan nuts in the sponge and crumble, here’s by twist on the recipe.
Blueberry Crumble Loaf
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| Straight out of the oven |
Serves 8-10
Loaf tin: 8.5 x 17.5cm with 7.5cm sides
Ingredients:
For the Sponge:
- 190g unsalted butter
- 190g plain flour
- 190g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon mixed spices or cinnamon
- 25ml milk
- 100g fresh or frozen blueberries (I actually included 200g and it made it extra moist and yummy)
For the Crumble Topping:
- 25g plain flour
- 10g unsalted butter
- 15g soft light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon mixed spices or cinnamon
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 170°C, then grease the load tin with butter and dust with flour or as I did use grease proof paper – makes it hassle free to remove after cooling.
- First make the crumble topping. In a bowl, rub the flour and butter together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the remaining ingredients and set aside. (I actually mixed all the ingredients together and it worked ok).
- Next make the sponge. Using a hand held electric whisk cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (Note: go slowly; otherwise the sugar will be decorating your kitchen!) Break the eggs one at a time, mixing, well, on a medium speed, after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure every bit of the mixture is used.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and mixed spices/cinnamon, then add in three stages to the creamed butter and eggs, pouring in the milk after the second batch has been added. (Note: if you add it altogether in one go it still works!) Mix well on a medium speed after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl once again to make sure all the ingredients are put to good use.
- Increase the speed to medium to high and continue mixing until the batter is smooth and even, then add the blueberries stirring them into the batter by hand and making sure they are evenly distributed. Pour the batter into the prepared load tin and sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top.
- Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until the sponge feels firm and a skewer inserted comes out clean with no cake batter sticking to it. Allow the loaf to cool before turning it out on to a wire rack to cool completely, then cut into slices and serve with a nice cuppa tea!
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| Hmmm… tastes nicer than it looks |
Anyway as they say in the Guinness advert, good things come to those who wait – and the Blueberry Crumble Loaf got the seal of approval from my male taste testers: 3 work colleagues (extra IT credit points in the bank for me), my dad and a mystery man.
