...but hadn’t got the photo from my camera till now. I followed alcachofa’s recipe, with a few modifications. I used brown flour and brown sugar, which made the finished result a bit coarser than it would have been with white – next time I’ll use half and half, unless I can find that superfine brown flour. I also replaced half the butter with homemade applesauce, and (since applesauce is sweeter than butter) reduced the sugar by about a third. I didn’t use any nuts, but I split the mixture between two 1lb loaf tins and added a handful of dried cranberries and blueberries to one of them.

It was easy to prepare, and came out absolutely scrumptious. Little Bro and I polished off almost all the plain loaf hot from the oven, and I sliced up some of the fruity loaf for the freezer – it freezes and thaws well and it’s great toasted, too. Definitely one to make again!