Cafe Liz

Apple-pear-plum bread, or, don’t throw out that pulp from your juicemaker

One of our friends, Gil, contributed 4 liters of fresh juice to our Rosh Hashanah meal — a great solution for a person with a juicer who doesn’t cook. The side effect? Massive, massive amounts of leftover fruit pulp — those 4 liters took about 15 kilos of fresh fruit to make.

I have a hard time seeing food being thrown out, so we asked him to bring us the pulp. We’d find something to do with it.

The juicer’s refuse happens to be relatively moist, and while quite fibrous, not surprisingly, it is strongly fruity — and as good as the fruit that went into the juicer. We happened to wind up with a mix of apple, pear and plum mush.

I decided to incorporate (some of) it into a bread. As my base I used my favorite pumpkin bread recipe from the Muffin Lady Cookbook, altering it to incorporate fruit mash instead of pumpkin, and cutting back on the oil.

The result was quite good, and I particularly enjoyed the pear undertones. Not so coincidentally, the pear juice was the best of the three, leading me to conclude that the pears were simply better quality to begin with. I’d definitely enjoy this with only pears, and thus a stronger pear flavor.

If you don’t happen to have a juicer, you can make this with pureed fruit, cooked pumpkin, applesauce or anything else of that nature. Zucchini would probably work, too.

For one 4-by-8 inch loaf (10 by 20 centimeters):

3 cups fruit mash
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cardamom

Heat the oven to 180 Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).

Mix everything together, starting with the fruit and wet ingredients, and ending with the flour. Pour into the baking dish, and stick into the oven.

Check on it occasionally. Once the top reaches the desired shade of brownness, cover with tinfoil so it won’t burn. Take out after about an hour, or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry.

This also could make about 4 round cakes 10 centimeters in diameter, or 2 16-centimeter cakes.

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