Easy Orange Tea Bread

Easy Orange Tea Bread

Marmalade, dried fruit and fresh orange – this loaf has it all! 

You know what they say, you can take the girl out of England, but you can’t take England out of the girl, and this recipe contains two of my English favourites – strong tea and marmalade. I always think marmalade is such a British conserve, it is to jam as what salt is to pepper. The two just go side by side on the breakfast table.

I love baking with marmalade not just because it’s so orangey-boom but because it always reminds me of my nana. She would always have soft toast with butter and marmalade for breakfast as would I when I used to sleep over at weekends. My love of marmalade started young and it’s still going strong.

It’s the marmalade in this loaf that takes it to the next level, that and the tea soaked juicy fruits and the fresh zing of the zest of the orange. This loaf has it all, but a generous spread of butter finishes things off nicely!

You’ll notice that there’s no Thermomix conversion for this recipe, and that’s because this recipe is so easy, all you need is a bowl and a spoon!

Is there a food that reminds you of a special someone? Are you mad about marmalade too?

Easy Orange Tea Bread 2

Ingredients

150g sultanas

85g chopped dried fruit (I like to use dates and figs)

rind of 2 oranges

250ml hot tea

110g soft brown dark sugar

1 egg

225g self raising flour

2 generous tablespoons marmalade

Easy Orange Tea Bread 3

How to

  1. Place sultanas, dried fruit and orange rind in a medium bowl. Pour over the hot tea. Cover the bowl and leave overnight.
  2. The next day, preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan-forced.
  3. Mix the sugar and egg together and stir in the marmalade. Then mix in the flour. The mixture will be quite gluggy.
  4. Stir in the fruit and any remaining soaking liquid.
  5. Pour mixture into greased and lined 1 lb loaf tin.
  6. Bake for about an hour or until cooked through.
  7.  Turn out and cool.
  8. Cut into slices and spread with butter.

Other info

Prep and Cooking time: 1 hour (+ soaking time)

TIP! Use any combination of dried fruits in this recipe. I like to save on time and energy and make double, and pop  a spare loaf in the freezer for a rainy day. The bread will keep up to 2 weeks if wrapped in foil/cling film and kept in an airtight container.

Easy Orange Tea Bread 4