Cheese & Walnut Loaf

Cheese & Walnut Loaf is a savoury tea bread that uses self raising flour and eggs rather than yeast. Easily put together and into the oven in about ten minutes, this tasty quick bread has a soft and moist cake-like crumb plus a slightly crispy outside like toasted cheese!

Including a generous amount of a mature cheese such as Cheddar, it’s full of tangy, savoury flavour plus crunchy walnuts.

Delicious buttered or serve just as it is alongside soups or salads. Will keep for 3-4 days or can be frozen. Tastes great toasted too!

Jump to Recipe

Tea breads or tea loaves, fruit-filled cakes cooked in a loaf tin, are widely known and loved. Perfect alongside a cuppa or as part of an afternoon tea, here in Britain we’re particularly fond of them. You’ll find my Fruit Tea Loaf recipe here.

However, like muffins and scones, tea breads don’t have to be sweet. So why not try this savoury version?

By the way, although I’m using the words ‘bread’ and ‘loaf’, like most tea breads (and all quick breads), my Cheese & Walnut Loaf doesn’t contain yeast.

Instead, it uses self-raising flour and eggs to make a light, soft and moist bake. Besides the lovely texture, this means you can have the loaf in the oven with barely ten minutes prep as there’s no kneading or proofing.

CHEESE & WALNUT LOAF

For the recipe I’m sharing today, I’ve chosen a simple but classic combination: cheese and walnuts.

I use a mature Cheddar whose tangy flavour permeates the bake beautifully. Complementing that, we have crunchy walnut pieces with their earthy flavour.

Creating this wonderful, light savoury loaf couldn’t be easier and you’ll find full instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Briefly, the steps are:

• Sift together self-raising flour, salt and pepper
• Rub in the butter
• Stir in grated cheese and roughly chopped walnuts
• Mix in eggs and milk
• Transfer to a loaf tin and bake 50-55 minutes

While the Cheese & Walnut Loaf is in the oven, your kitchen will smell amazing! When it’s done, the loaf will be well risen and a deep golden brown.

Although it’s tempting to dig right in, the loaf needs to sit, out of the tin, on a wire rack until completely cold.

After all, you wouldn’t slice into a sweet cake that was fresh out of the oven, would you?

SERVING

During recipe testing, I found myself cutting off and gobbling up rather more slices than I meant to! Eaten on its own, without even butter, this loaf tastes wonderful.

With a generous amount of mature Cheddar in there, there’s no doubting that this is a cheese loaf. The little pieces of crunchy walnut are a pleasing contrast to the soft, moist crumb. And I love that the outside has a slightly crisp texture with a flavour reminiscent of toasted cheese 😋.

Slices of Cheese & Walnut Loaf spread thickly with soft butter are heaven. Think of it as an alternative to Cheese Scones, but without the need for rolling and cutting out.

Like savoury scones, the loaf can be eaten as a stand-alone treat, part of an afternoon tea, in a packed lunch or picnic.

You can also eat it alongside soups and salads.

Best eaten fresh within two to three days, I see no reason why you couldn’t freeze this loaf. But I’ve also eaten it toasted on day four and highly recommend it. The crumb takes on the same appetizing toasted-cheese flavour as the crust!

EASY CHEESE & WALNUT LOAF

I really hope you’ll try this tea loaf. Yes, the cake-like texture is one you might not be used to in a savoury treat. But give it a go and I think you’ll love it.

Using mainly ingredients you probably already have in the fridge and cupboard anyway, and needing only ten minutes prep, what are you waiting for?

Have you made Cheese & Walnut Loaf? Leave a comment and don’t forget to rate the recipe!

5 from 1 vote

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Cheese & Walnut Loaf

This easy savoury tea bread or quick bread is made with self raising flour and eggs instead of yeast. Delicious sliced and spread with butter or serve alongside soups and salads.

Course Side Dish, Snack, Bread

Cuisine British, Vegetarian

Keyword tea loaf, savoury tea loaf

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 8

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 225 g self raising flour
• 1 large pinch salt
• ¼ tsp ground black pepper
• 100 g butter plus extra for greasing
• 120 g mature cheese e.g. Cheddar grated
• 40 g walnuts roughly chopped
• 2 eggs beaten
• 150 ml milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 Fan / Gas 4 with a shelf positioned just below the middle.

   Butter a small loaf tin (approx. 19 x 9 x 6 cm, capacity 450ml or 1 lb)

2. Sift the flour, salt and pepper into a bowl.

   Rub in the butter with your fingertips.

   Stir in the grated cheese and walnuts.

   Pour in the eggs and milk then mix everything together well.

3. Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and level the top.

   Put into the preheated oven and bake until risen, brown and firm: a skewer or cocktail stick inserted should come out clean. (50-55 min).

4. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack until completely cold.

   Serve spread with butter, or alongside soup, salad etc. Also good toasted.

   Eat within 3-4 days or freeze.

Recipe Notes

Suggested by recipes in Make a Meal of Cheese (1973, Cheese Information Service) and Farmhouse Kitchen II (1978, Yorkshire Television).

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