A little home cooking.

Picture this - A warm, sunny Sunday.  Men in whites on the village green with the crack of leather on Willow.  A typical 'English' Cricket match.  (For me, the most boring sport in the world LOL!)

Clip art from here

My Mom-in-law Brenda May used to make the cricketers tea for the team my brother in law played for.  The house smelt of home baking for a couple of days before 'the match', one of her recipes was for Tea Bread.  It's a family favourite and a very simple fat free, flexible recipe.  I mix it by hand as you will not need a mixer.  I made some today and I'd like to share the recipe with you.  Ideally, start the mix a day before baking to allow the fruit to 'plump up' overnight if possible.

Brenda-May's Tea Bread

Ingredients for a 1Lb loaf

1 cup of black tea.  (I use hot freshly brewed)*

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of any dried fruit

(I used sultanas, currents and candid peel)

2 cups of SR flour

(OR for the US

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt)

                                                                             1 egg

Method

Place the dried fruit, sugar and tea into a mixing bowl, mix together.  Cover and leave overnight if possible, but even an hour or two would do.

(After the overnight soak, nice plump fruit)

Then, next day line a loaf tin with enough silicon paper or foil to lift over the mixture to form a loose 'tent' to prevent burning.

Give the fruit mixture a stir and add the flour and egg,

then mix to amalgamate the ingredients well.

  Pour into the lined loaf tin

then lift up the excess lining and make a loose 'tent' to prevent burning

 and bake for approx 1 hour (checking after 30 minutes) at 180 Deg. C, 375 Deg F, or Gas 5.  The loaf is cooked when a skewer** comes out clean. (** no skewer?  Use a dry spaghetti stick!)

Mmmmm!

Lift out the bread with the liner and place on a baking tray to cool.

Slice and serve warm or cold

or, as we do and butter - lovely with a cuppa :o)

Store in an air tight container.  It keeps and freezes well.

* I make three times this amount at a time as I have 3 tins!  I halve the sugar (I'm diabetic).  I use half wholemeal and half white flour.  I have posted this recipe on an American site and it has been adapted to use with other fruits such as cranberries and fruit teas.  I have also added a couple of chopped plums that were left in the fruit bowl.....as I stated a VERY flexible recipe!  They also dared to just grease the tin and not 'tent' over the top without it catching, but I wouldn't dare to as my oven can be unpredictable.

Hope you make it and enjoy it :o)

Best wishes to all, happy baking!

07th June 2011

I've just found a photo of Tea Bread made with all white flour, looks different again!