Rhubarb and Almond Loaf

I made this a few weeks ago but have only just got round to putting the photos on my laptop and actually blogging it. I hadn’t worked with rhubarb before, so picked this recipe as it would be something a little out of my comfort zone – a toe in the water of branching out: I’m unbelievably unadventurous when it comes to baking, in complete contrast to the sheer quantity and variety of baking books and blogs that I read! Plus, after an epic tidy up of all my baking things that had become scattered all over the house, I was able to assess the ridiculous amount of baking tins I’ve accumulated and decided to put the neglected loaf tin to good use.

You’ll need a 8.5 x 17.5cm (3 ½ x 7in) loaf tin with 7.5cm (3in) sides for this Rhubarb and Almond Loaf, recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery’s Cake Days.

Ingredients:
For the stewed rhubarb:
4-5 stalks of rhubarb, chopped into 2cm pieces
70g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter

For the sponge:
190g unsalted butter, softened
140g plain flour
190g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
25ml whole milk
100g stewed rhubarb (from above)
15g flaked almonds

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (325 degrees Fahrenheit), Gas Mark 3, then either grease the tin with butter and dust with flour, or line with baking parchment (I lined the tin – I don’t trust just greasing it!).

Place the rhubarb in a saucepan with the butter, sugar and 50ml of water. Cook on a medium heat, stirring frequently until the rhubarb softens, then remove from the hob to cool completely.

While the rhubarb is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy (I used a hand-held electric mixer) and then add the eggs one at a time until fully mixed.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, ground almonds, cinnamon and ginger, then add half of this mixture to the creamed butter and eggs, followed by half of the milk. Mix well, and then add the remaining dry ingredients and the rest of the milk.

Stir in the stewed rhubarb, making sure it is evenly distributed. The quantities for the rhubarb as stated above were rather large in hindsight, so if I were to make it again I’d halve them. Here, I ended up with several tubs of rhubarb leftover as I didn’t want to put it all in and completely ruin the texture of the loaf. It’s up to you, but personally I’d alter the quantity.

Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes. When cooked, the loaf should be firm to the touch and a skewer should come out clean when inserted.

Allow the loaf to cool for a while before turning to out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

My only issue with the loaf is that it didn’t look quite as colourful as the picture in the book suggested, in fact, it looked really bland and boring (see my next post for proof)! The rhubarb wasn’t “tangy” as promised either, but the loaf still tasted good, stayed incredibly moist in a tin for several days, and was particularly good with a cup of tea on a cold day: comfort cake at its very best!