Currant Events
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 16, 2002
So much of a treat it may as well be cake.
Despite being so delicious, fruit bread is not an everyday indulgence. The ancient Greeks thought along these lines. For festive occasions they would enrich their dough with honey and dried fruits such as figs. And, in 19th-century Oxfordshire, "baker's cakes" made of dough sweetened with sugar and fruit were prominent delicacies at harvest teas.
Flora Thompson (1876-1947), in Lark Rise to Candleford, explains how families without a bread oven, or the money to fuel one, provided their local baker with raisins, currants, lard, sugar and spice. For the charge of a regular loaf, the baker would add the ingredients to the dough and bake it. These "dough cakes" were probably closer to fruit bread.
Fruitcakes certainly descend from fruit bread recipes and, as Elizabeth David explains in English Bread and Yeast Cookery: "When dealing with old recipes it is often difficult to make the modern distinction between bread and cake." Even today some fruit breads are so heavily sweetened they resemble cake.
Andrew Hewson, brand manager for Goodman Fielder, agrees that fruit bread is a treat, falling into supermarkets' "occasional purchase" category. He adds, however, that people are starting to treat themselves more frequently. Last year's retail sales clocked $50 million, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year's.
Warwick Quinton, of Quinton's Artisan Bakery, has been making fruit bread for 15 years. He says consumers' attitudes are changing.
"When I started baking my fruit bread, it was considered heavy. Now people say it's one of the lighter ones available."
He says consumers are now prepared to pay for quality. "When I first started selling my fruit bread at Paddington markets for $4 a loaf, people baulked at the price. These days I charge about $5 and that's [regarded as] reasonable."
Fruit bread is bound to be expensive because of its extra ingredients, so expect to spend up to $7 a loaf. We discovered an excellent range, from airy cake-like loaves to dense breads packed with fruit and spice.
Bowan Island Bakery
David Cummings worked in a Vancouver bakery and learnt to make sourdough and soda bread. On returning to Sydney he started a bread business at weekend markets. That was 10 years ago and now he is part-owner of the Bowan Island Bakery, which has a sublime Irish soda bread. Cummings says yeast-free soda bread is a great base to hold fruit. He uses buttermilk in the dough, which gives it a smooth texture and longer shelf life ($5-$7).
183 Victoria Road, Drummoyne, 9181 3524. Also available at Food Chain, 330-342 Church Street, Parramatta, 9895 1900, and The Cheese Shop, 797 Military Road, Mosman, 9969 4469.
Common Ground Bakery
The forest berry fruit loaf ($6.50) is just one of the four fruit breads made by self-taught baker Andrew Hundleby. As I sliced it I noted a familiar smell of Christmas pudding, which Hundleby later tells me is rum and clove oil. He believes bread's aroma is as important as its taste and appearance. But don't be misled by the smell; this is not dense pudding-like bread. The forest berry loaf is of a consistency similar to a fruit bun and equally as delicious.
586 Darling Street, Rozelle, 9555 6369.
Jakks Bagel &
Bread Co
When hotels began asking Jakks' director Simon Goldman for a fruit loaf to serve with cheese platters, his team of bakers came up with the Rhine Fruit Loaf, so named because it reminded a German employee of the bread he ate in his homeland. The dough is a malted mixture of wholemeal,
white and rye flour. Whole apricots, prunes, dates, currants and raisins are added to the chopped walnuts that give each slice a more savoury flavour than other fruit breads (about $7).
Phone 9317 4195 for stockists' details.
Quinton's Artisan Bakery
Warwick Quinton calls his Six Fruits Loaf a trusty old faithful. The dough is sugar-free and takes its sweetness from the figs, apricots, dates, raisins, currants and citrus peel contained within it. It's delicious fresh or toasted or, as Quinton recommends, "fried in a little butter and milk and served with honeycomb crunch ice-cream" ($5-$6).
179 The Mall, Leura,
4784 3121. Also available at the Growers' Market, Pyrmont (first Saturday of each month), Fox Studios Market (every Wednesday) and the Northside Markets (third Saturday of each month).
Tres Bon Bakeries
Tres Bon's Rich Continental fruit loaf ($3.49 for a 450g loaf) may be a mass-produced bread but it is indeed very good. There's a generous dose of currants and sultanas in this soft, particularly moist loaf. The ingredients say it includes peel, but not enough for me to notice. The Tres Bon range has nine fruit loaves and, says the company's director, John Fulton, the Rich Continental is the most popular.
Coles and Woolworths outlets statewide or phone 9729 2220 for other stockists.
Sourdough House Bakery
I had my hesitations about the sourdough and fruit combination, but this one really works. It has big chunks of pear, dates and apricots as well as currants and sultanas mixed into hearty sourdough. It's no wonder punters travel from as far as Wollongong and Newcastle for John Shi's bread. Only at weekends ($5).
26b Old Northern Road, Baulkham Hills, 9688 7444. Also available at Farmers Market, Orange Grove Public School, Leichhardt (Saturday mornings) and Organic Food
& Farmers Market, Parkway Hotel, Frenchs Forest Road East, Frenchs Forest (Sunday mornings).
RECIPE
After-dinner
fruit bread
Apart from eating it toasted with lashings of butter, Andrew Cummings, from Bowan Island Bakery, recommends serving fruit bread freshly sliced with a good Australian cheddar or blue and a glass of merlot. We think Pyengana cheddar from Tasmania and Grant Burge Hillcot Merlot 2000 work perfectly.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald