I bet you saw the title and thought, what? It’s a crazy combination, but a delicious little savory treat. Tangy blue cheese, crunchy hazelnuts, woodsy sage and a touch of sweetness from golden raisins with a little hit of wine make for a layered, complex loaf. It’s perfect with soup or stew, slathered with good butter for a snack, or served with cheese as an appetizer. Really, try a fruit jam like fig or cherry and a slice of sharp cheddar. I promise everyone will be surprised and delighted by this. And as a plus, it isn’t difficult to make for a lot of pay-off.
Use a wedge of blue cheese rather than the pre-crumbled tub. A treat with this loaf is the pockets and pops of blue cheese, so you want some larger chunks, though quite a bit will crumble when you cut it. The pre-crumbled stuff doesn’t give you that, and it rarely has much blue cheese flavor. I love this with toasty hazelnuts, but you could easily use chopped toasted walnuts. I had originally planned walnuts but discovered I was out when I gathered up my ingredients. Hazelnuts are the way to go. Sage adds a woodsy note, but you could easily use chopped rosemary. Golden raisins add a whisper of sweetness and a textural contrast, but regular raisins or dried cranberries or cherries would work as well. Use any white wine you have lingering around.
Kitchen favorites
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup olive oil
½ cup white wine
3 eggs
4.4 ounces blue cheese wedge
1/3 cup chopped roasted hazelnuts
1/3 cup golden raisins
Directions
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 by 5 loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving some overhang to lift out the loaf. Spray with cooking spray.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, sage, salt and pepper together in a large mixing bowl until evenly combined. You want quite a bit of pepper – you should see some speckles in the flour.
- Measure the wine and olive oil in a 2-cup measuring jug, the crack in the eggs and beat until combined. Add to the flour in the bowl and stir until thoroughly combined and the flour has very few lumps – you can beat it pretty vigorously to break up lumps. Cut the blue cheese into small cubes. Some will crumble, but a treat of this loaf is the pockets of blue cheese, so leave some large chunks. Add the blue cheese to the batter and stir to combine, then stir in the hazelnuts and raisins and stir to evenly distribute all the ingredients. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 – 40 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn out on a rack to cool completely. If this bread is too warm, it will crumble when sliced.
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