Loafing Around

It is my monthly book club meeting tonight. We are an all-female club, so it is surprising that we generally stay focused and only talk about the selected book. If our mouths are not full of words, then they are full of nibbles and treats that members bring along to share. We are not competitive about the dishes we share, but the bar was raised when one member cooked an Indian feast when we met to discuss The God of Small Things. At tonight’s meeting we are discussing Chris Cleave’s The Other Hand (a book that I found unmemorable, but that is by the by) and it is also the host’s birthday. Rather than take another cake, as I am sure there will be plenty, I decided to try something new. I followed a simplified version of a recipe that was found in a well-known grocery store’s magazine.


I say ‘simplified’ as I don’t have any weighing scales. I like to think of myself as a bit of a Keith Floyd in the kitchen; count to 3 elephants and that is a splash of wine etc. The recipe went something like this:

Goats Cheese and Pesto Loaf

• 100g of goats cheese -as this is weighed accurately at the deli, use this to help judge the weight of all the other ingredients!
• 225g of butter
• 50g of caster sugar – I would say that is about 4 elephants!
• 200g of all purpose flour
• 2 tsb of baking powder - thank goodness there is something I can accurately measure! Bugger… I don’t have any baking powder!
• 4 large eggs…if one fall on the floor and breaks, you can use 3…it seemed to work just as well!
• 3 tsb of pesto
• Pinch of salt
• Pine nuts and olive oil –drizzle on when serving (hahah – good luck finding those!
  

Method

Beat the butter and sugar together, and then add flour, eggs, baking powder and salt. Crumble the cheese and fold into the mixture. Swirl in the pesto.

Bake in an oven that feels hot and when you start to smell burning, the loaf needs to be taken out of the oven. Don’t let it get to the stage where 3 fire engines rush to the scene…then it has defiantly been in for too long! My loaf took about 35 minutes..

YUMMY!!