Rodney’s Fruit Bread

Often when Rodney comes round for tea he brings this delicious fruit bread with him. I've been asking him to give me the recipe until one day I just invited him round, suggesting we make it together. It was so much fun and we ended the morning with a cup of roibos tea and a slice of this bread, topped with melting butter. Scrummy!

Rodney’s Fruit Bread

Cooking Time: 1 hour

‘For me, baking my own bread is part of yoga and meditation – very grounding.’ – Rodney Weidland.


Ingredients
I cup whole meal flour
I cup pain flour
½ a metric teaspoon bi-carb soda
I teaspoon baking powder
½ tsp cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sea salt
I cup pecan nuts
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon honey
I cup dates – cut in half
300 mls buttermilk

Note: It’s lovely to be able to choose the quality of the ingredients that are used in your homemade bread. I always use organic flour which I buy from the co-op in Katoomba (Blue Mountains) and I vary my choice of organic dried fruits – you too can use as little or as much as you prefer.

Method
Make sure the oven is heated to 220 degree celsius before you put the bread in. If your oven is slow to heat then you may wish to put it on before you start preparing the dough.

Put the flour, bi carb, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, sea salt and pecan nuts, dates (and any other dried fruits that you’d like to add) into a bowl. Using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix the ingredients with love while thinking good thoughts.

Put a tablespoon of molasses and a tablespoon of honey into a saucepan and heat on low whilst stirring. When the honey and molasses become thinner then add the buttermilk and mix thoroughly. Make sure you do not overheat this.

Put a square piece of baking paper (about 20cm by 20cm) on a flat baking tray.

Pour the liquid mix into the mixture of dry ingredients and then mix them all together with a wooden spoon. The more effort you apply the tougher your bread will be, so mix it only as much as you need to in order to have no floury patches in the mix. Effortlessness is the answer.

Tip a quarter cup of plain flour onto a breadboard and spread it across the board, covering your hands in flour at the same time so that when you pick up the dough your hands don’t stick to it. Spoon the dough that you’ve prepared onto the breadboard and roll it in the flour, making one big ball of dough out of the mixture. Place the ball onto the baking tray you’ve prepared and pat it into a round loaf shape. With a large knife make 3 small parallel indentations on the top of the loaf. Sprinkle a teaspoon of flour over the loaf of bread and place in oven to bake for 35 mins. Eat with melting organic butter.