A Meatloaf That’ll Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

First things first: I’m a gal who loves her some meatloaf.

And I realize now that I probably steered you wrong with the vegetarian Beetloaf recipe I shared last month – the comment section of the Merry Memphian was filled with more profanities than a Quentin Tarantino screenplay.

It was an even worse idea than my Streetloaf – a meatloaf recipe made from roadkill. Look, we’re all trying to stretch our food budget these days.

However, I believe I’ve hit on a winner for the holiday season: Sweetloaf. It takes everything you love about meatloaf and replaces it all with sweet, sugary goodness.

Replace the lean ground beef, dried bread crumbs, diced yellow onion, half cup milk and one beaten egg with unbleached all-purpose flour, a stick of unsalted butter, five eggs, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg and salt.

Then swap out the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, garlic powder and black pepper for packed light brown sugar, freshly grated lemon and orange zest, freshly squeezed orange juice, finely diced crystallized ginger, chopped pecans, slivered almonds, chopped bittersweet chocolate and a mixture of dark raisins, golden raisins, unsweetened tart cherries, dried prunes, dried figs, dried peaches/apples soaked in a cup of dark rum.

When it comes out of the oven, you’ll hardly be able to believe it’s a meatloaf! It’s more like a sweet cake. Maybe I should call it “Cakeloaf” instead.