I baked a tea loaf this weekend! It is the level of excitement that I have in my life right now and one of my identified ‘replenishing’ activities.
I’m a big fan of tea loaves, easy to make and tasty to eat. I found a recipe on-line, as I always do, and found an excuse to use my NHS-gifted tea bags.
Interestingly I did create my own tea loaf recipe a number of years ago but I did not have any Earl Grey tea or an orange. Yeah…
So I made my loaf, over two days and it was well worth the wait.
It’s quite sweet and goes well with a cup lemon and ginger tea, which is my brew of choice at the moment. I’ll be honest, it was just slightly on the dry side, only slightly though! I left it in the oven for a little longer as it was not completely cooked after the specified instruction time or maybe it’s my oven, which I realise now over a decade old. I’ll make a few alterations next time or slather the slices with butter!
Dry or not it was still an enjoyable eating experience. I found just stopping to sit, eat, chew and sip, quite restful. It is/was such a simple thing but much needed. I have to continue to remind myself to stop and enjoy the here and now. I took a few slices with me to work on the last day I was in (Monday) but found that I wolfed down both slices before I’d finished the reading the notes of the first patient. Not so much mindful and mindless…
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup of mixed dried fruit
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 cup raw sugar*
- 1/2 tbsp of bicarbonate soda
- 1 cup cold black Nerada tea (for variation you could substitute Chai or Earl Grey tea)
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- Extra raw sugar, to sprinkle
INSTRUCTIONS
- Put the fruit, sugar and bicarb soda in a large bowl, then
pour over the cold Nerada tea. Cover and stand overnight, in a cool, dry place. - Next day, heat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 7cm-deep,
11x21cm loaf tin. Sprinkle the sides and base with the extra raw sugar. This
makes the cake easier to get out and gives an extra crunch to the exterior. - Stir the golden syrup and self-raising flour into the fruit
mixture and mix well. The dough will be quite stiff, but this is okay. - Transfer mixture into a prepared loaf tin and smooth the
top. Optional – sprinkle a little extra sugar on top for texture and
appearance. - Bake for 40 – 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the
middle comes out really clean. (I undercooked the cake the first time.) Set it
aside to cool for five minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool
completely.
*I used coconut sugar.
