Macadamia and Fig Loaf

This wholesome fruit and nut loaf is best served warm with a big smear of nut butter or vegan butter. Personally I love it with macadamia butter as its so creamy and delicious. It would also make for a super yummy breakfast served with some coconut yoghurt and fresh berries or figs.

I made this recipe for Australian Macadamias, hero-ing our delicious native nut! We were fortunate enough to be invited to visit the macadamia orchards in bloom and shoot this recipe amongst the flowering trees.

It was also interesting to witness the different stages of the flowering and the migratory bee keeping they had set up for the bloom. Many farmers bring in bee hives during the flowering to assist with pollination as these nuts rely on pollination to grow new nuts for the coming harvest (in summer). As you may remember from my Instagram and YouTube, we visited NZ earlier this year for the Manuka harvest to witness the bee keeping operations over there. I was so fascinated with bees and so to witness the migratory bee keeping and pollination in action was amazing.

Macadamia and Fig Loaf

Ingredients:

1 cup raw macadamias, roughly chopped

1 cup dried figs, roughly diced*

1 cup wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla bean extract (or 1 vanilla bean pod)

1/4 cup macadamia oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup plant based milk

2 tsp flax meal

How to make:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan forced and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
Into a large mixing bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt. Add in the macadamias and figs and toss together.
In a seperate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, oil, maple syrup, milk and flax meal. Allow to sit for 10 minutes to allow the flax meal to absorb some liquid.
Whisk the wet mixture and then pour into the dry ingredient mixing bowl. Fold everything together until just combined.
Pour batter into baking tin, tap 2-3 times on the bench to release any air bubbles, and then place in the oven to bake for 45-50 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Slice the loaf to serve.

* Note: if you can’t find dried figs, swap them out for medjool dates and apricots. I also decorated the top of the loaf with some extra slices of dried fig and chopped macadamias.