Lingonberry Loaf

Who doesn't love Ikea! The cheap furniture, the impulse buys (photo frames, candles, kitchen stuff, blankets...) and, of course, the Swedish food. I always manage to leave with at least one jar of lingonberry jam. I'll make meatballs one day (well, I'll get someone else to make meatballs) so I can use it as a condiment, but I usually just eat it on toast. Until, that is, the hubs came home with Scandinavian Feasts by Beatrice Ojakangas from the library and I found a new way to use lingonberry jam - in sugary loaf-form.

First up: the dry ingredients. 1.5 cups flour, 1/2 tsp each cinnamon and ginger (though I skipped the ginger because I was out) and the best part - 1 tsp cardamom. My favourite spice of the moment. I was especially excited because I ground up cardamom pods for the first time in my (old) coffee grinder - are they ever potent when freshly ground! I will definitely stop buying the pre-ground stuff. I also added 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp each baking soda and salt.

This recipe is basically a simple yogurt loaf, which I've written about before on this blog. You just have to make your own with 1/2 cup each of lingonberry jam and sour cream - I'm sure you could use yogurt instead. But first you have to cream 1 cup sugar (so much!), 1/2 cup butter and 2 eggs. Then mix all the ingredients together in some sort of orderly fashion.

Spread the batter in a greased loaf pan and bake @350 for about an hour. This made a very moist loaf - unlike my low-fat ones, this one stayed moist for a couple of days. It was tangy from the sour cream and lingonberry jam, and the cardamom was definitely present - the hubs thought it was too strongly spiced for him. I thought it was just fine. It did fall apart a little when I sliced it - not sure why. So not the most solid loaf. I'd probably cut the sugar down next time, and maybe try with a low-fat yogurt instead of sour cream. Can't wait to try more recipes with fresh cardamom!