Cheddar, apple & walnut loaf
When I stumbled across this Cheddar, apple and walnut loaf in ‘The Great British Bakeoff every day’ I instantly fell in love. It’s touted as a robust savoury cake that is richer than a scone or soda bread so I simply had to give it a go. I was busy doing the baked apple with a butterscotch sauce recipe using Pink Lady Apples so I had a lot of them in my kitchen. I also felt this would be a perfect bread to go with soup and we are well into soup-eating weather here in Cape Town.
I used a 12-month mature Cheddar in order to get as much cheese flavour into the loaf as possible and it still wasn’t SUPER cheesy but cheesy enough. You might want to make a cheese scone if you are looking for that. I loved the sweetness of the apple but it’s really tempered with the cheese so it adds a nice texture. The loaf is really dense and hefty and one slice goes a long way and is the type of bread/cake that is better the next day. I landed up freezing the remaining slices of the loaf and toasting these off later, which worked really well.
Served with my favourite carrot soup with a dash of cumin & coriander it was a real winner. And yes, that is dukkah sprinkled liberally over the top because Yum!
A few of my favourite recipes with apples:
Apple & mince pie crumble bars
Apple cake with maple cream cheese frosting
Easy pork pies with sage & apple
Apple & banana cake with caramel cream cheese frosting
Apple galettes with salted caramel frosting
Apple & cinnamon muffins with a hint of orange
Chicken breasts stuffed with pork, sage, & apple
This Cheddar, apple & walnut loaf is made by hand in one bowl #winning
Recipe – makes 1 medium loaf/cake slightly adapted from The Great British Bakeoff Everyday
Cheddar, apple & walnut loaf
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 175 gm self-raising flour
- 125 gm salted butter chilled and cut up into small pieces
- 50 gm bran flake cereal
- 125 gm extra mature Cheddar Cheese grated + 25gms extra to top
- 1 medium-large Pink Lady apple peeled cored and cut into small pieces
- 3 large free-range eggs at room temperature
- 50 gms walnuts chopped
Instructions
- 20Preheat your oven to 180C / 350 F and line a medium-sized loaf tin with baking paper.
- Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the chilled butter. Using your hands mix these together until they resemble coarse bread crumbs.
- Break the bran flakes up into smaller pieces (not too small) and mix this into the flour, then add the walnuts (you can keep a few out to add to the top), grated cheese and chopped apple.
- Lightly beat the eggs with a fork in a separate bowl and then add this to the dry mixture. Using a wooden spoon, lightly mix until the batter is combined. It will be a very thick dough-like consistency.
- Decant this into your lined baking tin and spread it out to even it. Sprinkle the remaining Cheddar cheese as well as any reserved walnuts on top. Bake for 50 – 65 minutes until golden brown and when a skewer is inserted it comes out clean.
- Depending on the size and height of your loaf time, the cooking time can vary and my loaf took closer to 80 minutes. Gently cover the loaf with a piece of tinfoil from about halfway through the baking time to prevent over-browning.
- Allow to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes before removing it and then store in an airtight container or wrapped in foil to be eaten within two days. If you want to keep it longer, cut it into slices and freeze these off. Serve with lashings of butter obvs.
BUY MY NEW eBOOK
Find me on Instagram & Pinterest
Hi Sam, just saw your recipe and I was so fascinated that I decided to try it immediately. Having no cheddar I used emmental and added 20 grams of Parmesan. Well it was utterly delicious . Thank you for awesome and unusual recipes.
Hi Nathalie and wow that was quick. I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe
This look so amazing, definitely want to try it with butternut soup.
No liquid? I made it as is – translating from gms to cups so I so hope it comes out! In the oven now. Fingers crossed
Yummy taste it has! I made Chicken Creamy Marsala Soup yesterday. My husband liked it very much. Thanks for sharing this awesome soup recipe!
I’m so glad you liked the Cheddar loaf 🙂
Hi Dianne, how did the walnut and Cheddar loaf come out?
the print is so light on this site except what is highlighted can’t read the recipe,,,its not as dark as what I am typing..how do I darken it…a shame to miss these lovely recipes..wanted to try the walnut apple load
Hi Ma, I’m sorry you are struggling with the colour of my font. The best thing to do would be to copy it to a word document and then print from there. Thaks for the feedback
Sam