Fruity Tea Bread

I find this recipe an excellent one to use when I want to bake a fruit loaf. I start the night before by soaking the fruits in hot strong tea to swell the fruit to gorgeous plumpness. Occasionally I have added chopped glace cherries to the fruits. If I use glace cherries, I wash them first in a sieve to remove the sticky syrup, this helps I find to stop them sinking to the bottom of the loaf. I am thinking of using different flavoured tea at some point to see what difference this would make to the overall taste.

I store this loaf in a cake tin wrapped in foil and it keeps perfectly well for up to a week or it could be frozen for a later date. I like to serve this loaf thinly sliced spread with butter but of course it still tastes very good on its own.

Here is the recipe.

Fruity Tea Bread

Ingredients

100ml (3 ½ fl oz) strong hot tea
450g (1 lb) mixed fruit, raisins, sultanas or dried fruit of choice
175g (6 oz) soft brown sugar
25g (1 oz) butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
250g (9 oz) plain flour, sieved
½ level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, sieved together with the flour

Method

Night before, place the tea, mixed fruit and sugar in a bowl and cover with cling film and leave overnight to soak.

Neat day, preheat the oven 180°C/Gas mark 4/360°F. You will need a 900g (2 lb) loaf tin, lined with baking paper and greased well.
Stir in the egg and melted butter and fold in the sieved ingredients.
Bake in a preheated oven on the middle shelf for 1 - 1½ hours or until firm to touch or a skewer placed into the middle of the cake comes out clean. When cooked, leave in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out to cool on a wire rack.

Best served sliced with butter.