This recipe for rhubarb bread means you’ll always have a sweet dish on hand – even in winter.
Rhubarb has a lot more uses than most realise and this recipe, which is an old-fashioned one from way before most grandmothers’ time, is an excellent choice for lunchboxes, picnics or morning tea.
You can also create a lovely dessert by pouring the batter into the mini loaf trays – silicone ones are best for this to avoid the bread breaking if being removed while hot for dessert, and adding fresh cream or ice-cream. These also make good snacks.
This recipe does call for buttermilk, which is an acidic dairy by-product, often created when making butter.
It is not something you can substitute milk for, because the way it behaves during the cooking process means the finished product is a lot more tender and less dense than if you used milk.
If you want to make your own rather than buy it, as many do, there are a number of easy ways to do it.
You can either add 1 Tbs of lemon juice to one cup of milk, or add a third of a cup of yoghurt to two thirds of a cup of milk – but you do need to let the combined ingredients curdle, which takes about five minutes, before using.
Remember when using rhubarb stalks, clip the bottom and pull back any tough strands along the length of the stalk before dicing.
Ingredients
Two cups diced fresh rhubarb
One large egg
One cup buttermilk (see notes above)
1/2 cup light oil
One cup brown sugar
One tsp cinnamon (optional)
Two tsp vanilla
One Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Two cups plain flour
Method
Preheat oven to 175C. Grease a standard loaf tin (you can use baking paper here, which makes it easier to remove from the pan). Dice your rhubarb into pieces about 1cm big and set aside.
Whisk together the egg, milk, oil, sugar, and vanilla until well combined and smooth.
Fold in the flour – into which the cinnamon, baking powder and salt have been added and whisked through.
Combine well but don’t over mix.
Gently fold in the rhubarb.
Pour into the loaf tin and smooth out evenly.
Sprinkle a tablespoon of white sugar evenly over the surface before placing in the oven.
Bake for about 60-65 minutes or until a skewer inserted near the centre comes out clean.
Let cool completely before removing and glaze with icing if preferred.
