Week 15: Swedish fruit loaf
Sometimes our Around the World journey involves compromises. (I’m all for keeping things authentic but not quite to the point of travelling halfway round the world for the sake of a fruit loaf…) So, although we were missing a couple of key ingredients for this Swedish fruit loaf, I’m pleased to report that the compromise did not extend to the flavour (well, at least not that we were aware of!). The things we were missing were filmjölk (a dairy product made from soured milk, which we replaced with a combination of milk and natural yoghurt) and lingonberries (which we replaced with dried cranberries). The result was a very more-ish loaf with a slightly sweet, slightly sour flavour. There is no butter or sugar (the sweetness comes solely from the fruit) so it’s pretty healthy, and the best part is there’s no waiting for any yeast to rise so it’s relatively quick. If you like your fruit loaf on the sweet side, this stuff goes brilliantly with a smear of raspberry jam. You can find the recipe we based it on here. Below is our version, modified with locally available ingredients.

What you will need:

• 40g rolled oats
• 50g spelt flakes
• 120g wholemeal flour
• 180g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 400ml filmjölk (the original recipe suggested substituting with natural yogurt or buttermilk – we used yoghurt but found we also had to add about 130ml of milk to get a moist enough consistency)
• 50g dried cranberries, soaked in water overnight (if you can get your hands on them, the original recipe called for 60g lingonberries, fresh or frozen)
• 65g hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1–2 tbsp pumpkin seeds for decoration
• baking paper
• 1.5-litre loaf tin
• butter for greasing tin, and serving (optional)
• raspberry jam, for serving (optional)

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease the loaf tin and line with baking paper.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients.
3. Add the yoghurt and milk and mix together. This should give you a dense batter (we could stand our wooden spoon up in it). Fold in the cranberries and nuts.
4. Pour the mix into the tin and top with pumpkin seeds.
5. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a metal skewer comes out clean from the centre. Leave to cool on wire racks. Eat while still warm or toast when cold.

Join us on our journey!
This is the 15th of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: Jamaica!