Orange lemon polenta loaves with chia seeds

Sophie Barclay

These loaves would also be delicious using tangelos or mandarins instead of oranges.

Ingredients

2	Oranges, scrubbed clean with skin on, topped and tailed (Main)
1	Lemon, scrubbed clean with skin on, topped and tailed
1 ¼ cups	Polenta, fine ground
¼ cup	Cornflour
1 cup	Ground almonds
2 tsp	Baking powder
3 Tbsp	Chia seeds
1 pinch	Salt
250 g	Unsalted butter, softened
2 cups	Caster sugar
1 tsp	Vanilla essence/extract
6	Eggs

Lemon Glaze

1 cup	Icing sugar
2	Lemons, juice of 1, zest of 2 (Main)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Grease and line two loaf tins, or a 23cm cake tin.
3. In a small saucepan place the oranges and lemon, fill with sufficient water to cover two-thirds of the way up the side of the fruit. Place over a high heat and bring to the boil. Boil for 10 minutes turning the fruit after 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and drain well. Set the fruit aside to cool a little.
4. Roughly chop the fruit, removing any visible pips. Place the fruit into a food processor bowl. Blend until it is well pureed. Transfer the pulp into a small bowl and set aside.
5. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the polenta, cornflour, ground almonds, baking powder, chia seeds and salt.
6. In a cake mixer bowl, place the butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the inside of the bowl after each addition.
7. Add a cup of the polenta mix with a couple of tablespoons of the fruit pulp to the cake mixture, beating until well combined. Continue alternately adding the polenta and fruit pulp until it is all incorporated into the cake mix.
8. Divide the cake mix evenly between the two loaf tins. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Note: If using a cake tin, just increase the baking time to approximately 1 hour.
9. Remove from the oven and leave in the tins to cool a little before turning them out on to a wire rack.
10. To prepare the glaze: In a small bowl mix the icing sugar, lemon juice and half the zest with a fork. When the loaves have cooled, drizzle over the glaze and sprinkle over the remaining lemon zest. Serve with unsweetened natural yoghurt. These loaves make lovely gifts and keep well in an airtight container for up to a week.