Fig Ricotta Walnut Loaf

Fig Ricotta Walnut Loaf

My mum's fig tree inspires this. She gave me a load to take back with me to London and aside from freezing bags to put my smoothie, the next obvious choice was of course cake. I think a few of you might have seen the trials on my Instagram. Thank you for your patience, I have finally got it right. Worth the wait I promise. Let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

Serves 8
170g unsalted butter, soft
160g caster sugar
40g brown sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten together
1.5 tsp orange blossom water
180g ground almonds
60g spelt/plain flour
2 pinches of salt
1/2 level tsp baking powder
1/2 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g walnuts, roughly chopped
140g ricotta cheese

For the figs:
4 figs, halved
10g butter, soft
10g brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 170 C degrees and grease/line a standard loaf tin (21cm by 11cm by 7cm). Beat the butter and 2 sugars together until light and fluffy (about 5 mins whisking) with an electric whisk.

In a separate bowl, combine the ground almonds, flour, salt and baking powders together. Slowly beat in a little of the eggs followed by a bit of the dry mix. Continue until both are incorporated.

Add in the orange blossom water, walnuts, and ricotta and by hand mix until just combined. Don't over-mix! Add to the tin and spread evenly.

Top with figs cut side up. Top each fig with a bit of butter, pinch of sugar on top. Bake for 1h.20/1h.30mins until it is cooked through and the figs are golden on top.

I covered the top with tin foil just after an hour to avoid the top burning. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before cutting. Keeps for 3 days!