Kitchen Diary

Passionfruit, passion fruit or granadilla as it is locally known in South Africa, is plentiful at the moment. I cannot resist those dark purple orbs when I come across them and will bring my stash home excitedly and place them in a bowl on the sideboard so that the aroma can envelope me while I go about planning what to do with them. I love the mix of tart and sweet pulp in any number of ways. I love mixing the pulp of one into some Greek yoghurt and serving it on top of my muesli in the morning with a drizzle of honey. My plans always include making a few bottles of  passion fruit curd baking  some cakes and I love them in my tropical smoothies right now. My hubby has a weird way of enjoying them. He stirs the pulp, together with a teaspoon of sugar, into a glass of icy cold full cream milk. The acidity of the granadilla slightly curdles and thickens the milk and he slurps away happily….lost in childhood memories! When buying granadillas from the grocery stores or markets be sure to select them carefully. Weigh them one by one in the palm of your hand. If they are light it means  they are probably quite old and past their prime and will disappointingly hold very little pulp. They need to be heavy in your hand, be turning or have turned a lovely dark purple colour and starting to wrinkle ever so slightly. A crinkly heavy granadilla is the sweetest juiciest one.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Douglas asked me for some old fashioned cookie modeler recipes so I was paging through my ancient first recipe book that I started when I got married in 1978 and I came across a recipe that I have sadly neglected lately. An easy to mix and bake yoghurt loaf using the yoghurt container as your measurement. I cannot remember where I got this recipe from, possibly one of the magazines of the day and it is one that was a favourite in our household while my children were growing up. You can ring the changes by changing the flavour of the yoghurt that you use, you can add a hot syrup, pouring it over the cake as it comes out the oven, or leave it out, you can iced it with glace icing or leave it off….you can just have it as is. My kids used to eat it similar to banana bread, spread with a little bit of butter. As a sandwich it used to make a delicious sweet ending to their lunch breaks at school.

My favourite flavour of course is granadilla. So here is my version of this lovely loaf cake.

MOIST EASY PASSION FRUIT YOGHURT LOAF CAKE

This is a very easy loaf to bake using, as measurements, the cleaned container that the yoghurt comes in. Use the older round shaped containers weighing 175g (that’s about 6 ounces) and not the modern small square shaped containers. Use any flavor yoghurt that you wish. The possibilities are endless but my favorite is the passion fruit.

Cake:

1 ½ Containers (175g each) of Granadilla or Passion Fruit Yoghurt

3     Containers Self Raising Flour (use a clean dry yoghurt container)

2     Containers Castor Sugar

1     Container Cooking Oil (I use half vegetable and half coconut oil)

3 Large Eggs

Pinch Salt

Fresh Raspberries or Blueberries (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180

Grease and flour one large loaf pan or two small ones

Sift flour and salt into a large mixing bowl,  add the sugar

Beat the eggs in a medium sized bowl and beat in the oil and yoghurt

Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and mix together well

Gently stir in the berries. I like to put a line of berries on top down the middle to sink into the batter as it bakes

Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the size of pans

Allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

If you would like to add some glace icing as I did this is how I did it….

Glace Icing

100g Icing Sugar – sifted twice

Pulp from 1-2 ripe wrinkled granadillas depending on size

Mix together and if needed add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to get a pouring consistency

Once the loaf is completely cold place the rack over a baking sheet or tray and pour the glace icing over the loaf so that it drips down the sides.  Allow to set slightly before cutting and enjoying!

A very big thank you to everyone who has been so supportive throughout a very difficult time for me. I so appreciate and value each one of you. I am mending well from the reconstructive oral surgery I had 3 weeks ago. I just take it one day at a time right now and don’t think of the rest of the procedures that I still face through the year. It kind of overwhelms you if you do that. The worst I believe is behind me and I am very grateful for that. For now it is just waiting. Fortunately I have the planning of the next SA Food and Wine Blogger Indaba to keep me busy and out of mischief  :) More news on that very soon.

Have a great week!

browniegirl xx

I firmly believe that animals rock this planet in so many ways, but not all are blessed to be living in good homes where they are loved and cared for and pampered. My friend Linda over at The Squashed Tomato started Romeo’s Wish last year, an iniative that raises money for food and other much needed products for underprivileged animals. Please go over there and see how you can support this wonderful cause and make Romeo’s wish come true. Follow the link and “like” the facebook page so you can keep up to date with Linda’s news. You can also follow Linda on twitter with the handle @squashed_tom