Autumn Berry Loaf

A sign of summer’s end is definitely the ripening of the blackberries and raspberries and in Edinburgh now, there are berries abound! Often I cook them down to make a compote but I thought I’d try something different. I’ve amended a recipe for apple loaf to use up some of my plentiful berry harvest. The result is a moist berry loaf, quite tart in taste and perfect with a hot drink on a cool Autumnal afternoon.

Ingredients
225g blackberries and raspberries
250g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g butter
175g light muscovado or plain light brown sugar
2 rounded tbsp demerara sugar or dark brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
1 small apple (whole - not cored or peeled)
2 large eggs, beaten
The zest of 1 orange

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. With your fingers, rub together the flour, baking powder, butter and light brown sugar in a large bowl.
3. Measure out 5 level table spoons of this mixture place in a separate bowl. To that mix add the cinnamon and dark brown sugar. This is for the topping. Set aside for now.
4. Grate the apple down to the core. Mix it in with the beaten eggs and orange zest.
5. Lightly stir the egg/apple mix into the large bowl of rubbed mixture. Don’t over mix.
6. Gently fold in ¾ of the berries with a metal spoon.
7. Pour mixture into a silicon or greased loaf tin. Scatter the remaining berries over the mix. Sprinkle over the topping.
8. Place in oven. After 50 minutes check on loaf. If it is browning too much, place foil over it at this stage.
9. Return to oven and bake for a further 25-30minutes.
10. Remove from oven and allow cooling in the loaf tin for 30 minutes before turning out.