Blueberry Loaf

Here’s a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery ‘Home Sweet Home’ book which I made at my Mum’s request.  It has a Chelsea Bun / Bread & Butter Pudding feel to it

What you need:

One 900g / 2lb loaf tin

For the dough

300ml lukewarm whole milk
25g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried active yeast
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp salt
85g unsalted butter, cubed

For the filling

60g unsalted butter, softened
100g soft light brown sugar
200g blueberries
1 large egg, beaten

What you do:

• Grease the loaf tin and dust with flour
• In a jug, mix the milk, caster sugar and yeast.  Stir well and set aside until it becomes frothy – mine didn’t froth 😦
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour and salt.  Rub in the butter into the dry ingredients to form a crumb like consistency
• Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk mixture.  Use a spoon to mix to form a dough
• Turn out onto a floured surface and knead well.  Place back in bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise for approx. 45 minutes or until doubled – mine didn’t double, in fact it didn’t look any different in any way!
• Once proved, knock back, and roll out to approx. 30 x 38cm then cut lengthways into 4 equal strips – the equal strips bit is quite important because you need to stack them
• Spread butter over the strips, sprinkle 50g of the brown sugar over, then scatter the blueberries on too, gently pressing into the dough

• Stack the strips neatly on top of one another
• Cut into 6 equal stacks, then put them into the loaf tin, cut side facing up.  Place each stack next to each other to fill the tin
• Use up any extra blueberries or gather up the ones that have fallen out, press into the dough
• Wrap the tin in cling film and allow to rise again – approx. 30-40 minutesLift the strips and stack them neatly on top of each other

• Preheat oven to 170°c
• Brush the top with the beaten egg and sprinkle over the remaining sugar
• Bake for approx. 30-35 minutes – mine actually took closer to 45 minutes

• Allow to cool but this is nicer served warm with a splash of cream

Until next time…Happy Baking!