Market Spice Rooibos Fruit Tea Loaf
Market Spice Rooibos Fruit Tea Loaf.
This one was a winner. After making Irish Breakfast Tea-infused Scones, we learned our lesson on how to properly infuse baked goods with the wide-array of flavors tea can provide. The lesson? Steep your tea! Don't just add ground loose leaf tea leaves. Simply baking them won't extract the flavors!
This round, we gained redemption! We decided to use Market Spice Rooibos, a caffeine-free, spicy, cinnamon-orange flavored tea and we weren't disappointed with the result.
To start, here's the recipe & instructions:
- 1/2 cup of dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup of raisins
- 300 ml of freshly made Market Spice Rooibos tea, using 1.5 teaspoons of loose leaf tea
- 250 g of all-purpose flour
- 100 g of soft light brown sugar (we don't like things to be overly sweet)
- 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
- 2 large eggs
INSTRUCTIONS
- Steep Market Spice Rooibos tea
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Place the cranberries and raisins in a bowl and pour in the tea.
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Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F. Line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment or a loaf tin liner. or your tray of choice.
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Combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar in a mixing bowl and stir together.
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Mix in the melted butter and eggs - using a wooden spoon or spatula.
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Add in the raisins, cranberries and Market Spice Rooibos tea.
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Stir together until everything is thoroughly combined. It will be a very wet mixture.
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Spoon the mixture into the lined loaf tin, place in the oven and bake for 1 hour - to 1 hour 15 minutes. You'll know it's done when an inserted skewer comes out clean. If you find that the top of the tea bread is starting to look too dark whilst it's in the oven, you can cover it will foil.
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Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then remove from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing and serving.
Market Spice tea is a world renown blend originating in Pike Place Market in Seattle. The original market spice is a black tea, but there are also green and rooibos variations. We wanted to keep this loaf caffeine-free, so we decided to use the rooibos blend. It combines pure african redbush tea, cinnamon pieces, cloves, orange pieces, cinnamon oil, and orange oil to achieve a flavor like none other!
Now Market Spice teas are powerful. We were somewhat afraid this loaf would be overwhelmingly "orangey," but the result was a moist & fruity tea cake with a very fulfilling orange & cinnamon flavor. Not overbearing and not underwhelming. That said, we do think there could be some improvements to our recipe.
If you venture to try this recipe, what ever tea you do decide to use, steep your chosen dried fruit overnight in your tea. This will allow the fruit to soak up more of the liquid and allow the loaf to rise more during cooking.
We also found this Market Spice Rooibos Fruit Tea Loaf to be missing an important ingredient: A frosting/drizzle!
Our Recommendations: Add a cream cheese drizzle or cream cheese frosting!
Cream Cheese Drizzle Ingredients:
- 4 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar or powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 or 4 tablespoons milk
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup of softened unsalted butter
- 8 oz. of softened cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups powdered sugar
Have questions? Let us know in the comments and we'll get back to you when we can!
The Tea & Spice Shoppe
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