Fruity Tea Loaf

I was lucky enough to meet Julie Le Clerc recently which gave me the opportunity to say how much I enjoyed her recipes and confessing (really hope I did not gush too much!) that I owned a number of her wonderful books. All of them are well used which is not always the case with cooking books. I have a number of favourite recipes and this Fruity Tea Loaf post today is one of them. It is so simple to make and the result is always the same - a lovely moist fruit loaf - delicious buttered but also fine on its own. I like to bite into the chunky, slightly sour bits of apricot and the sweet soft sultanas (the child in me I guess). 

I remember my mother used to make lovely fruit loaves with whatever dried fruit she had in her cupboard, always soaking the fruit in hot water, but this loaf has that extra special touch with the nice herbal tea flavour. I use a Lemon and Ginger herbal tea but it would be interesting to play around with other flavours. It is ideal for feeding a crowd as it makes a large loaf. When wanting to share the loaf I have spread the mixture into two smaller tins (with the cooking time altered), but whatever size you make it never seems to last long.... lovely with a morning cup of tea or as a supper snack with a coffee.

Fruity Tea Loaf – Julie Le Clerc

From  - Made by Hand – Pub 2010

(Gluten free flour and baking powder can be used and self-raising flour is fine as well)

100g dried apricots – coarsely chopped

100g dried pitted dates – coarsely chopped

100g sultanas

50g raisins

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup boiling hot fruit herbal tea infusion

1 small egg lightly beaten

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

Found a nifty way to keep my page open on my book stand

Combine dried fruit and sugar in a bowl. Add hot tea, stir and leave for 30 minutes for the fruit to soften and the liquid to cool.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 1.5 litre capacity loaf tin with baking paper, leaving an overhang on all sides.

Stir beaten egg and vanilla into dried fruit mixture. Sift flour and baking powder into bowl and stir gently to combine with the fruit mixture.

Spoon the mixture into prepared loaf tin. 

Bake for one hour and 10 minutes, or until loaf tests cooked when skewer is inserted in to the centre and comes out moist but clean.

Cool in tin for 15 minutes, then remove the loaf to a wire rack to cool completely.

Waiting for the tea to brew