Pear and Banana Breakfast Loaf

This makes a delicious, nutritious and satisfying weekend brunch. Lovely on its own, or served with jam or honey and some plain soy (or dairy) yogurt. It's best served warm and fresh out of the oven, but we discovered it's still really tasty cold - if you're lucky to have some left over for afternoon tea!

Adapted from a recipe in the trusty ol' NZ cooking bible, the Edmonds Cookery Book, it uses barley malt extract to sweeten which provides slow release energy.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c self raising flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

2 tsp egg replacer, mixed with water (or I used apple juice) according to the packet

1/4 c rice milk

70g vegetable margarine, melted

1/3c barley malt extract

1 large banana, mashed

1 medium pear, peeled and finely chopped

rice milk to brush

sunflower seeds to scatter

To make:

1) Turn the oven to 180°c and grease a loaf tin.

2) Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and mix.

3) In another bowl, whisk the egg replacer mix, milk, barley malt extract and melted marge until well combined. Mix in the mashed banana and pear.

4) Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Fold together until just combined.

5) Spoon the mix into the loaf tin (it'll be quite a sticky mix) and brush with rice milk. Scatter sunflower seeds over the top and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, until it comes away from the edges and is slightly golden.

6) Let it sit in its tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.