This one-pot fruit loaf recipe is such a simple and delicious recipe with just about any fruit, but my favourite time to make it is in the autumn when I have piles of feijoa on my hands.
Feijoa (fee-joe-a) seem to fall in to one of three categories – LOVE them, hate them, or never heard of them. An English friend recently told me she thought they had an ‘astringent quality’ and that she couldn’t understand the Kiwi obsession with these little green gems. Personally, as a born and bred New Zealand girl, I’ve been raised on them and I adore them.
Everyone in NZ knows someone who knows someone who has a tree and at this time of year nearly every visitor comes bearing bags of feijoa’s because their tree or their neighbours tree is laden with them and they’ve “got more than they know what to do with”. In season in the early Autumn they arrive in the shops at a horrific $12-$15 a kilo. Its always a battle of wills between the green grocer and my 3-seasons-long craving for them.
I admit I usually cave and end up buying just a few at this exorbitant price while I wait for my trees to give up their bounty. But its really only a matter of weeks before the market gets flooded and the price plummets. I saw some today for $3.99/kg. Much more reasonable.
For the uninitiated, feijoa are difficult to describe. You eat them by cutting them in half and scooping out the flesh with a spoon. Their taste is sweet with just a little hint of tart,  and almost musty. If anything, you could say they’re a bit like a guava. They have a grainy texture similar to a pear. Eaten fresh they’re very addictive, and their delicious flavour holds up well when cooked so they’re great stewed and served with ice-cream for a wonderful winter dessert, or used in baking. They make a superb muffin, crumble or cake, and I love to use them in this delightfully simple loaf.
I realise these little fruits will be hard to come by in some areas so this loaf recipe is also excellent with apple and sultana, or pear, or even guava or fig. Really any fruit that can stand to be boiled for a few minutes without losing too much of its colour or texture would be a good substitute. And its made using just the one pot so requires very little cleaning up. Now thats my kind of cooking!
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- 1½ - 2 cups fruit pulp
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup white sugar (or ½ cup white sugar, ½ cup soft brown sugar for a richer flavour)
- 50g butter
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp cinnamon (optional)
- 1 egg
- Preheat the oven to 170C Bake. Grease or line a 23cm loaf tin.
- Put the fruit pulp, water, sugar and butter into a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.
- Lightly beat the egg and quickly stir it through the fruit mixture.
- Sift on the flour, baking powder and baking soda and fold in gently.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50-60 minutes until the centre spring back when lightly touched, and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out cleanly.
- Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning on to a wire rack to cool completely.
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