Spiced Tea Bread Recipe

This spiced tea bread recipes is one of the easiest I've ever baked, ever. It's so, so delicious too, and the name 'tea bread' doesn't do the wonderful, crusty, chewy, richly scented and richly fruited thing justice.

This spiced tea bread is a kind of 'quick bread' rather than a true bread: it doesn't need yeast, but it's not really a cake either since it's not made with any fats (no butter, oil or vegetable fat). It's a slightly bread-y, slightly cake-y loaf of deliciousness, made moist by plenty of dried fruits that have been soaked overnight in a good, strongly brewed cup of tea. Slice it, eat it as it is, spread it with butter, or toast it. Best of all, serve it alongside a cup of the same tea you used to steep the fruits in: it's pure nirvana.

Although some tea bread recipes are quite plain, I like my tea bread lightly spiced, so I used a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ground ginger. As for the tea itself, feel free use any tea you like – ordinary black tea, Earl Grey, fruit teas... go nuts. I like using Russian caravan tea or lapsang souchong. The dark, malty smokiness of these two teas works incredibly well with the spices.

If you're using a fruit tea, I'd suggest swapping the spices for vanilla or a drop or two of rosewater to complement the fresh flavours.

2025 update: here are some pics from my most recent making of this recipe:

Ingredients:

-250ml hot, freshly brewed tea

-375g mixed dried fruit (usually found in the baking section where all the raisins and nuts are)

-250g self-raising flour

-125g dark brown soft sugar

-1 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp cinnamon

-1/2 tsp ginger

-1/4 tsp cloves

-1/4 tsp nutmeg
-Pinch of salt

-1 egg, beaten

Method:

1) The night before you want to bake your tea bread, soak your dried fruits in the hot tea overnight in a bowl. No need to put it in a fridge: just cover the top with some clingfilm.

2) On the day, grease and line a loaf tin with some baking parchment and preheat the oven to 170°C (10 degrees lower than if you were baking a sponge – this helps stop the top of the cake from burning as we'll be baking it for a longer time than a sponge).

3) Measure out all the dry ingredients into a large bowl, and stir in your soaked fruits, unabsorbed tea and all, and the egg.

4) Scrape the firm, sticky dough evenly into your prepared loaf tin, drop the filled tin on the counter a few times to bash out any air bubbles, and put it in the oven to bake for an hour.

5) Cool on a wire rack, and enjoy sliced up and still slightly warm. And, of course, don't forget that cup of tea to drink alongside it.

 

This was possibly originally adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe. I think the original recipe had bicarbonate of soda and plain flour instead of self-raising flour and baking powder, and no spices. I'm not a massive fan of the taste of bicarbonate of soda, and my recipe has a lighter rather than denser crumb because of the doubled-up raising agents.