Tea Bread

I have had a bag of currants lurking in the back of the cupboard since I made Christmas pudding last year. It kept leaking its contents so I finally decided to use it up in some tea bread. My Mother-in-Law passed this recipe on to me when I was first married and I have baked it many times since. There are lots of variations out there on the web but this one is really simple.

Ingredients

8oz/225g dried fruit (You can use any fruit you have hanging around)
8oz/225g self raising flour
6oz/170g soft brown sugar (dark or light)
6fl oz/190ml cold black tea
1 tsp mixed spice
1 egg
1 level tbsp marmalade or honey (I prefer marmalade!)

Method

You have to start the evening before by putting all the fruit and sugar in a large bowl, adding the tea, giving it a quick mix around and leaving it to soak overnight.

The next day simply add the rest of the ingredients and give it a thorough mixing.

Put the mixture into a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin. After quite a few failed cakes, I realised that lining the tin made the cake a whole lot easier to remove.

 Bake it at 180C, (160C for a fan oven), or at Gas Mark 4. The recipe says to bake it for 1 hour 15 minutes, but I normally find it takes less time than that, so keep half an eye on it!

Tea bread is lovely eaten by itself, but is also very nice buttered.