Nectarine tea loaf

Recipe from a Waitrose card, made dairy free.

https://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/n/nectarine-apricotandearlgreytealoaf.html

Make tea with 130ml water (original recipe: milk) and 3 earl grey tea bags. It should be strong but not over-mashed and bitter. Use this to soak 100g dried apricots, chopped small.

Cut the "cheeks" from 2 nectarines, and slice thinly for the top of the cake. Dice the remaining flesh the same size as the apricots.

Cream 90g dairy-free spread (original: butter) with 110g caster sugar, the zest of a lemon and grated nutmeg to taste. Mix in 2 large eggs and 225g self-raising flour, then add the fruit and tea. The mix will be quite soft and loose.

Pour into a lined 2lb loaf tin, and arrange the nectarine slices in fans on the top. Bake 1h at 170°C (fan) or until it passes the skewer test. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then on a rack. Optionally, brush the top with melted apricot jam.

A delicious, light cake that was easy to make. Not sure it really qualifies as a tea bread but I will definitely be doing this one again nonetheless.

Vegan salty balls

Original recipe from Hannah Grant via her @dailystews Instagram account. Modified as to what I had to hand, with some thoughts for next time...

- 130g dark roast crunchy peanut butter (next time try smooth, either almond, cashew or coconut)
- 5.5tbsp maple syrup (used half honey as I ran out of syrup)
- 50g Vive chocolate protein powder
- 50g oats (basic porridge oats so not whizzed to flour, but would try next time)
- 25g desiccated coconut
- large pinch salt
- juice and zest of 1 lime (thought this would go better with the chocolate protein)
- 1 tsp cocoa powder (my addition)

I was able to press and roll these into balls rather than cutting into squares, I think squares would have been more difficult.

This made 24 x 15g balls. Each: 64 calories, 3.5g protein, 5g carbs, 3.5g fat. They taste pretty good and are a nice alternative to the date/cocoa based ones I've done before. More lime, more salt next time = margarita balls ;)