Cranberry, Pistachio and white chocolate Loaf

I’ve listed the Thermomix and Food processor methods for this amazingly tasty Cranberry, Pistachio, and White chocolate Loaf.  It tastes as good as it looks and it’s probably easier to make than it is to say – LOL

I made a bunch of loaves a while back because I wanted to show how versatile they can be.  This Cranberry, Pistachio and White chocolate recipe is a breeze to make, with a little tweaking the flavour combinations are endless.

You can freeze them for lunchbox snacks, just slice and wrap well. If you use clingfilm and foil they’ll be fine for three months.  Although there’s one thing you have to know about loaves, they almost always crack on the top.  Don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, or that the recipe is no good.  Read further to find out why.

Why did my cake crack on the top?

Now we’re talking about loaves here; I’ll write another post about why cakes sometimes crack when I get the chance.  So why are loaves different?

First of all, you have to think about the shape of your loaf tin.  The surface area or top of your loaf is small in comparison to the amount of batter underneath.  What tends to happen is the surface of your loaf starts to bake and set before the batter underneath has had the chance to rise.  I don’t think it’s a problem and in fact, I think it looks great most of the time.

If it is very bad, you can do a few things to help lessen the effect.

1. Try turning the oven down 20°c or bake it with the fan off.
2. Pop on a baking hat.  No not you, check this out.  Cover the loaf for the first 15 – 20 minutes of baking.  Be careful here, make sure your batter isn’t too close to the top of your tin.  You don’t want the top to be damaged by the baking hat.
3. Use a little less raising agent.  This one is tricky; You might find your cake crumb ends up being too dense and heavy if you reduce your baking powder from say 15 g to say 10 g, so only play with the ingredients if you have to.
4. Embrace it, or if you can’t, then cover it with a topping.

Cranberry, Pistachio and White chocolate Loaf

4.67 from 3 votes

5 stars tells us you love the recipe

becs-table.com.au

This cranberry, pistachio and white chocolate loaf has a beautiful flavour. The sweetness comes from the white chocolate and the bite from the cranberries.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Difficulty Easy

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Method Thermomix and Conventional

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Equipment

• Thermomix (optional)

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

For the Cake

• 120 g chilled butter diced, plus extra for greasing
• 230 g self-raising flour
• 170 g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs lightly beaten
• 45 g milk
• 40 g pistachio nuts extra for decoration Optional
• 40 g white chocolate chips
• 80 g Cranberries dried extra for decoration Optional

For the Lemon Icing

• 1 cup icing sugar optional
• 1 lemon

Instructions

 

Conventional Method For the Loaf

• Preheat the oven to 190°C / 170°C fan forced.
• Grease a loaf tin and line with baking paper. (no need to line if you have a USA pan)
• Wash and soak the Cranberries in boiling water, just enough to cover, set aside for 10 minutes
• Sieve the flour into a food processor with a pinch of salt and add the butter. Whiz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, eggs and milk and whiz again to make a smooth mixture.
• Add the drained cranberries, white chocolate and Pistachios and fold through with a spatula. Scrape the batter into the Loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until risen and firm. To test it, a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
• Cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Thermomix Method for the Loaf

• Preheat the oven to 190°C / 170°C fan forced.
• Grease a loaf tin and line with baking paper. (no need to line if you have a USA pan)
• Wash and soak the Cranberries in boiling water, just enough to cover, set aside for 10 minutes
• Weigh the flour, salt and butter into the TM bowl set to speed 5/6 seconds
• Weigh the sugar, milk and eggs into the TM bowl and set to speed 5 /10 seconds
• Weigh the drained cranberries, white chocolate, and Pistachios into the TM bowl and fold through on reverse speed + 3/5 seconds. Scrape the batter into the Loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until risen and firm. To test it, a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.

For the optional Topping

• Make the Lemon icing and drizzle over the cake then sprinkle with extra cranberries and pistachios.
• Place the icing in a bowl
• Squeeze just enough lemon to make the icing like a paste. Not too runny do the figure 8 thing we’ve talked about at Bake Club so many times.
• Pop in a piping bag and drizzle back and forth across the cake back until covered
• Sprinkle cranberries and pistachios over the top