Well the weekend seems to have flown by and on these lovely hot sunny days what could be nicer than a nice refreshing cup of tea and some freshly baked beetroot and raisin tea bread.
The beetroot season has just started and it is a vegetable that I feel is particularly unused. Mostly bought in jars pickled in vinegar but it is so much more versatile and good for you too. Beetroot is a good source of iron and folate (naturally occurring folic acid). It also contains nitrates, betaine, magnesium and other antioxidants (notably betacyanin). More recent health claims suggest beetroot can help lower blood pressure, boost exercise performance and prevent dementia.
There that’s the science out of the way which I have to confess I copied from the internet to save you all the bother of going to look it up for yourselves. This weekend was a true lazy weekend for me as I didn’t really do anything at all except a bit of baking and lounging around in the sun eating the fruits of my endevours. There is a new micro pub opening up in my high street in the coming weeks so I will be sampling some real ales before too long and hope to write a review here in this blog about all my “hard” work in sampling said beers.
- 200g Light Muscova Sugar
- 4 Large Eggs, Separated
- 200g Finely grated beetroot
- Zest and Juice of a Lemon
- 100g Raisins
- 100g Ground Almonds
- 200g Self Raising Flour
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Grated Nutmeg
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 3 and lightly grease a loaf tin. Then line with baking parchment.
- Using a whisk beat together the egg yolks and sugar until soft and fluffy.
- Stir in the beetroot, ground almonds,lemon zest and juice and the raisins.
- Sift in the flours and spices and fold in gently.
- Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and slowly fold into the cake mixture.
- Pour into the loaf tin and bake for around an hour until you can insert a skewer and it comes out clean.
- Allow to rest for 10 mins in tin before removing to cool.