Humble, un-iced and simple in appearance, I love this recipe for its pure, unadulterated flavour. If you can source the expensive Iranian pistachios, use them to replace half of the regular nuts for the most brilliant colour of loaf imaginable.
Prep time: 15 minutes | Cooking time: 50-60 minutes
MAKES
One 900g loaf or a 29 x 10 x 7cm loaf
INGREDIENTS
250g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the tin
225g caster sugar
Zest of 1 lime
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
125g pistachio nuts
4 eggs
100g ground almonds
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin.
In the bowl of a free-standing mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, lime zest and vanilla until pale and fluffy. I use the whisk attachment for this recipe in order to get plenty of air into the mixture.
In the bowl of a food processor, blitz the pistachio nuts to the same consistency as the ground almonds.
Remove from the processor and add to the creamed sugar mix along with the eggs, almonds, flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk until well combined and you have a pale and light batter.
Spoon the batter into the prepared tin, then place in the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the sponge feels firm to the touch and a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
Allow the loaf to cool a little in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool down fully. We like to serve this plain with only a little icing sugar, or with fresh figs and natural yogurt.