Apple and Coconut Wholemeal Loaf Recipe
Using Organic Ingredients for Back-to-School Lunchbox Baking
Aug 26, 2008
Shopping for local produce and high quality imported ingredients forms a good part of each week for menu planning. With the start of school term and semester, home baking for interesting lunchbox slices can use seasonal ingredients.
Cooking apples are ripening earlier where the climate and variety allows. This makes early crops of fresh cooking apples a seasonal choice for this apple and coconut wholemeal loaf recipe.
Apple and Coconut Wholemeal Loaf Recipe
Ingredients:
- 450g or 1 lb cooking apples
- 100g or 4 oz desiccated coconut
- 50g or 2 oz olive oil margarine
- 50g or 2oz dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, free range
- 100g or 4 oz plain wholemeal plain flour
- 100g or 4 oz fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs
- 3 tablespoons apple juice
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Directions:
- Grease a 450g or 1lb loaf tin.
- Preheat the over to a moderate heat.
- In a glass mixing bowl, mix together the olive oil margarine and dark brown sugar until creamy. This base of the loaf mix is shown in the first photograph below.
- Crack and beat the egg.
- Add the egg gradually to the loaf mix.
- Weigh 100 grams of wholemeal flour, wholemeal breadcrumbs and desiccated coconut and set to one side.
- Add the wholemeal flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and breadcrumbs to the loaf mix and fold in until the loaf mix looks well balanced.
- Add the apple juice to the loaf mix
- Peel and core the cooking apples, locally grown, and cut into thin chunks or slices, depending on your preference.
- Stir in the apple to the loaf mix.
- Add the desiccated coconut to the loaf mix and stir in very well.
- Turn the loaf mix out of the glass mixing bowl into the greased loaf tin.
- Press the loaf mix down into the loaf tin firmly and smooth the top with a knife or back of a spoon.
- Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until firm and slightly risen.
- Turn out and cool on a wire rack upside down as shown in photograph 2.
- When cool to the touch, as shown in photograph 3, the loaf can be turned over and stored at room temperature.
- Cut a 1 ½ to 2 cm slice, in photographs 4 and 5, for eating or packing in a lunchbox.
About the Original Apple and Coconut Wholemeal Loaf Recipe
The recipe for Apple and Coconut Wholemeal Loaf was created to use some early ripened Malus domestica ‘Stirling Castle’ apples home-grown in a Scottish garden. ‘Stirling Castle’ apple was first recorded in 1831 in Scotland and remains a popular variety with gardeners living in the North of England and Scotland. The apple trees can produce annual heavy crops.
The original recipe, tested by the author, used also Dark Muscovado dark brown sugar produced in Mauritius and desiccated coconut produced from organic agriculture and carrying the Soil Association Organic Standard from Crazy Jack Organic. The flour used in the original recipe was Allinson Wholemeal Plain Flour milled from 100% wholegrains.
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