sultana loaf

[kenny weir]

I love baking but get a bit of grief from within the household about the amount of butter, eggs, sugar etc needed to do it right.

So I tend to look out for recipes that have some semblance of "healthiness" about them - and this one, ripped from a community cookbook my mum sent me, is a beaut. It only has about a tablespoon of butter and no eggs.

115 sugar

15g butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups sultanas

1 tablespoon syrup

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

225g flour

Put all ingredients into bowl except flour and baking powder. Add boiling water and stir well. When mixture is cool, add flour and baking powder. Pour into greased loaf tin and bake for 1 hour at 180C.

Of course, given that this quite an austere baking trip, the end result definitely tastes better after being smeared with (you guessed it) butter. But at least you have the choice of if and how much ...

(Cooked most recently this evening to the strains of the Horace Silver Trio).

[A Lark Ascending]

I'm far too lazy to bake.

But I've recently become partial to the banana loaf and cinammon and apple loaf on sale in the local supermarket.

[JSngry]

What's a "sultana"?

[maren]

What's a "sultana"?

golden raisins?

[kenny weir]

What's a "sultana"?

golden raisins?

Yeah - I think that's about it. In fact, I think sultana is an actual grape variety. In an case, raisins or sultanas work here and I've also used dates.

[Late]

I used to buy "Sultana Bran" when I lived for a short while in England. Looked similar to the stateside "Raisin Bran" — purple box and all. In fact:

[A Lark Ascending]

Currants

Raisins

Sultanas

I know the difference in taste. But I can never quite work out which comes from what.