Our chef Barbara & her team behind the highly acclaimed Port Antonio restaurant Mille Fleurs are frequently praised for the inspiring Jamaican cookery lessons they give to our guests and visitors to Jamaica, but on April 1st they will turning their attention to a very special local special needs school, the School of Hope.
The Trees that Feed Foundation has instigated the planting of some 3000 breadfruit trees across schools in Jamaica to ensure that students will have access to a nutritious and sustainable food source. Rotary International and the Jamaican government are now backing this fantastic initiative and since Earth Day 2014 we have been pleased to contribute, working with 4 local schools by planting trees, developing recipes and giving cookery lessons to enhance little ones’ skills in using gluten free breadfruit.
We recently had Mary McLaughlin the president of the foundation for a wonderful breadfruit themed lunch and naturally each course used this wonderfully versatile fruit. We will be introducing the children to these dishes in addition to making Easter Bun and Cinnamon Rolls made from breadfruit flour. If you would like to try using this gluten free flour and you can’t find it locally, it is possible to order breadfruit flour via ritajam.com. It iss $3 per pound plus shipping, but obviously a larger order ensures a discount.
For dessert we tried out Mary’s recipe for a unique gluten free moist banana bread which we finished with our own in-house easy rum glaze, delicious and we recommend trying the glaze out on banana bread gluten free or not! These glazes help to make any sponge based cake really moist and delicious and wickedly rummy! The key is to glazing a cake is to poke plenty of holes with a skewer into the cake so the glaze can seep evenly into the cake rather than ending up as a pool at the bottom of the cake. Make sure you drizzle a glaze very slowly over the top of the cake so it has a chance to seep in gradually. The final key is to allow the glaze to soak in as long as possible – the longer the better and serve it at room temperature.
- ½ cup Butter, melted
- 1 cup Caster Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1½ cups Breadfruit Flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ cup Milk
- Juice of 1 Lime
- 3 medium Mashed Bananas
- For the Glaze
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter
- ¼ cup Water
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ cup Dark Rum
- or Rum Glaze with Pecans
- 1 cup Sugar
- ¾ cup Heavy Cream
- ¼ cup White Rum
- • 3 large Egg Yolks
- • 1 cup Pecans, roughly chopped
- • ½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cake pan or loaf pan In large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well.
- Mix the milk, lime juice and bananas and fold into the batter.
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices mix well. Add to the batter.
- Spread evenly into cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the Rum Glaze
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the sugar and water and bring to a boil; then turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum.
- For the Rum & Pecan Glaze
- Stir together the sugar, heavy cream, rum and egg yolks in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of the spoon, about 5 minutes. Stir in the pecans. Continue to cook and stir until it turns golden and thickens, about 5 more minutes. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. This version is more for just coating the surface of the cake.
Share This
2 Comments
