I like fruits when they are still partially green, unripe. I want them to be really hard and not so juicy. My mother, who is in love with all the juicy and messy fruits, always told me that I was a bit “weird” in that sense.. Well, maybe I am.

Especially peach, I love, but again, hard and almost green versions! So when this recipe called for peach, I of course wanted to find a few hard peaches. However, as we are in the middle of November, I could not find any fresh peaches – ripe, unripe, mid-ripe – nada!

Instead, I bought peeled and sliced peaches in a can. I bought Pirkka label, as it looked less artificially sweetened (I am not so sure actually, maybe others were not sweetened as well, I don’t speak Finnish well you know). In any case, I washed each peach piece (there were 4 half peaches) with cold water for a while.

There was also something new for me in this recipe: applesauce. You can always make applesauce by yourself but when I found a jar of ready applesauce in a very cheap price in Kmarket Kamppi, I just felt lazy and bought that. Applesauce is used in many recipes as a substitution to oil (to some extent) in order to reduce fat content. You can find very useful and detailed information about this on this link: http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/6869/why-can-applesauce-be-used-in-place-of-oil

The recipe that I used, from the blog “The Realistic Nutritionist” calls this “bread” but I think it’s a bread / cake – something in between.

Oh, and for the first time, I wasn’t shy and I commented on another food blog – for this recipe. I wanted to show my appreciation for the lovely taste of this bread cake, and how good the recipe was explained.

So here is my take on the recipe, easy, quick and peachy!

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Ingredients:

1.5 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
3/4 tbsp pumpkin pie spice*
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
2 tbsp milk (I used full fat)
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup chopped peaches (out of 4 halves in the can, I used 3 and ate the last one!)
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 tbsp brown sugar

*Pumpkin pie spice: 2 tbsp ground ginger, 2 tsp nutmeg, 1.5 tsp ground allspice (in Finnish: maustepippuri) (and 1.5 tsp ground cloves, but I skip this one since I do not like cloves myself!)

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1. Preheat the oven to 160C and grease a loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice together. Put it aside.

3. In a smaller bowl, put the granulated white sugar and add egg, egg white, milk and applesauce. Whisk it until they blend well.

4. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture (aka dry ingredients) and pour the egg mixture (aka wet ingredients) in the middle. Fold it with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until all the dry ingredients blend well with the wet ingredients.

5. Put the peaches in the batter and mix gently, just until the peach pieces spread inside the batter evenly.

6. Pour the batter inside the greased loaf pan. Spread sliced almonds and brown sugar on the cake.

7. Put in the oven, in middle rack. Bake for about 65-70 minutes, until a toothpick or a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Take it out of the oven when it is ready and let it cool, in the pan for a while, then on a cooling rack out of the pan.

Serve with tea! And try to serve some to your guests as well, fight with the urge to eat the whole thing all by yourself!