Gluten-free sweet potato and pear loaf

Spiced with wintry warmers like cinnamon and nutmeg, this sweet loaf makes a nutritious breakfast or snack.

Tagged as:

autumn breakfast buckwheat dairy-free gluten-free lactose-free pear refined-sugar-free snack sweet sweet-potato winter

Things are swiftly turning autumnal in Amsterdam. As the seasons change, so too do my breakfasts. Smoothies and soaked oats shift to hearty porridges and dishes laced with warming spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and the like.

I've already mentioned my desire to include veggies in my brekkies – even the sweet ones. Sweet by name and nature, sweet potatoes easily serve this purpose. For this particular loaf, pumpkin would work equally well. Likewise, an apple can happily stand in for the pear.

Make sure your pear/apple isn’t too ripe and juicy or the loaf won’t set as well, though you could try increasing the amount of chia seeds to compensate if that’s the case, since they help to soak up liquid.

Sweet potato and pear breakfast loaf

1/2 cup x coconut oil, softened
1 TBSP x raw unpasteurized honey
1 tsp x vanilla extract
2 x organic free-range eggs
1 1/1 cups x grated sweet potato (peeled, if preferred)
1 x firm pear, cored and grated
1 1/2 cups x almond meal
1 cup x buckwheat flour
1 tsp x baking soda
1 tsp x sea salt
2 tsp x cinnamon
1/2 tsp each x ground ginger, turmeric, nutmeg
1/4 tsp x ground cloves
1/4 cup x chia seeds
handful x pumpkin seeds, for topping

Instructions

Preheat oven to 220°C (200°C fan bake) and lightly grease and line a 12-x-26-cm loaf tin.

Beat the coconut oil, honey, vanilla and one egg together in a large bowl (I use my stick blender with the egg-beater fitting). Add the second egg and beat again until combined.

Add the grated pumpkin and pear and mix with a wooden spoon. Next, stir in the almond meal, buckwheat flour, baking soda, sea salt, spices and chia seeds. Mix until well combined. You'll end up with a semi-dry batter.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth down the top slightly. Sprinkle over the pumpkin seeds and lightly press into the batter.

Cook for 45 minutes, or until a skewer pricked into the centre of the loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the loaf tin before slicing. Serve as is, or warmed and buttered. Instead of slicing you can also spoon it into bowls and serve with a dollop of yoghurt over the top.