Cornish saffron loaf
- Published: 31 Dec 07
- Updated: 18 Mar 24
This age-old recipe from Cornwall uses the delicate spice saffron to flavour the fruit bread. Serve for dessert or along with a cup of tea.
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Serves 6
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Takes 35 minutes to make, 25 minutes to bake, plus infusing and 2½ hours’ proving
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Ingredients
- 25g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 125ml milk, plus extra, if needed
- 2-3 large pinches of saffron strands
- 3 tbsp Cornish clotted cream
- 225g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
- ¼ tsp salt
- 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
- 25g golden caster sugar
- ½ tsp ground mixed spice
- 25g sultanas
- 25g raisins
- 1 tbsp clear honey
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Method
- Grease a long, thin 500g loaf tin with butter and set aside. Heat the milk in a small pan over a low heat until just below simmering point. Stir in the saffron strands and leave to infuse for about 15 minutes off the heat.
- Add the cream to the milk and saffron in the pan and return to a low heat. Warm (but don’t boil) for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the yeast, sugar and mixed spice. Make a well in the centre and add the warm milk mixture. Mix well to make a soft dough, adding extra milk if needed.
- Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 15 minutes, gradually adding the butter and dried fruit as you go, until the dough is soft and elastic. Pop into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place for about 1 hour or until at least doubled in size.
- Punch the dough in the bowl to ‘knock back’, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5 minutes. Split the dough into 3 even pieces and roll out into long ’sausages’, just a little longer than the tin. Plait the dough together and tuck the ends under as you lift it into the tin. Cover with some lightly greased cling film and leave in a warm place for at least 1½ hours or until doubled in size again.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Bake the loaf for 25 minutes, until risen and golden. Remove from the oven and brush with the honey. Leave to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into thick slices and spread with more clotted cream or butter to serve, if you like.
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- Recipe from January 2008 Issue
Nutrition
Nutrition: per serving
- Calories
- 274kcals
- Fat
- 10.2g (6.3g saturated)
- Protein
- 5.1g
- Carbohydrates
- 43.1g (13.2g sugars)
- Salt
- 0.3g
delicious. tips
You can make 6 individual buns, instead of a whole loaf, just bake for 15-20 minutes on a baking sheet.
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[…] 11. Cornish Saffron Loaf […]
[…] Recipes for Cornish saffron cake vary in combinations of spices and dried fruits from village to village, but the classic saffron cake recipe is beloved over the whole of Cornwall and provides a popular teatime treat (especially when slathered with creamy butter). The saffron bun is a cornerstone of Cornish cuisine and similar to the ‘teacake’ found in other parts of the UK, but it is given a unique yellow hue thanks to the addition of the world’s most expensive spice – saffron. It is thought that the Phoenicians brought saffron to Cornwall and used it to trade for tin which explains how this exotic spice made it to Cornish shores. The basic recipe contains flour, sugar, currants and sultanas, spices such as nutmeg, fat (traditionally lard), yeast and saffron. The saffron is often infused in milk to bring out the colour and flavour of the spice and added to the dough before cooking. We love saffron cake and prefer ours dolloped with clotted cream alongside a pot of Cornish tea. Yum. […]