The East Midlands Plum job

Date Published:

12/09/2008

Map user, Grub-lover, added Welbourne's Bakery to the Map saying "Lincolnshire plum bread at its finest. Be sure to pick up some Lincolnshire Poacher to enjoy it properly." I went off to do just that

When I meet Pete Welbourne, the third generation of Welbourne bakers, he shows me a letter he's dealt with from a customer who complained that her plum bread didn't contain any plums. "If we put dried plums in it, we'd have to call it prune bread by law," he says. He goes on to explain: "In olden times, when you dried any fruit out it was known as pluming or 'plumed fruits', so there's where the name comes from."

In the bakery, Ashley the baker is just mixing up a fresh batch. It's flour, brown sugar, salt, vegetable fat and a bit of yeast. To this is put the fruit, which contains raisins, currants and diced peel. Ashley starts the mixing, adding each ingredient after a few minutes. A few moments after the water and soaked fruit have gone in the room is filled with a really fruity, yeasty, spicy smell. It smells a bit like a red wine bottle the morning after. After the mixing stage it's hauled out, and cut into 700g chunks It's then left in the greased tins to prove a little bit, before going in the oven at 180˚C.

The recipe has changed once since Pete's grandfather, Cornelius Welbourne, first started making it a 112 years ago - they now use vegetable fat rather than lard so vegetarians can enjoy it too. Pete describes his loaf as a rich one. "We date for three months and it does improve with keeping," says Pete. Later he gets me a loaf from the shop to take home. It's a hefty thing, weighing in at 960g and looks dark, rich and sticky. I'd normally just tuck in but on this occasion I’m taking Grub-lover's advice and saving it until I can get my hands on some Cote Blue cheese or some good Lincolnshire poacher to have it with. Watch this space.

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