Monday 13 February 2012

Pain au Thé

Oh dear... how long has that been there?...
"Look what I found at the back of the cupboard" I've just found a Christmas Pudding (please do not ask me to look at the use by date). Sadly not only had it almost completely dried out but Richard doesn't even like Christmas Pudding. Problem is I don't want to throw it away; I might get called Scrooge or the bin man might shout  "You've killed Christmas" when he finds it in the wheelie bin. So I took a risk and made this cake. Risks are good, and this risk tastes particularly super spread with butter.

Store Cupboard Tea Bread
300g of Christmas Pudding (roughly crumbled into small chunks)
100g of other mixed dried fruits and nuts (use whatever you have - sultanas, almonds, apricots, goji berries from an abandoned graze box)
200ml of strong black tea
125g of sugar
1 egg
125g of plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves

Leave the mashed up Christmas pudding and mixed fruit to soak in the tea for a few hours or overnight.
When you're ready to bake the tea bread preheat the oven to 160°C. 
Grease a 25cm x 11cm loaf tin and line the base with a piece of greaseproof paper.
In a small bowl whisk the sugar and egg together until well combined and then fold through the soaked fruit. Sift in the flour, baking powder and spices into the mixture and fold everything together and then pour it all into the loaf tin and bake for about an hour and a half. After the first 30 minutes cover it with tin foil and continue baking. Serve cold, sliced spread with butter. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Miriam,

    I also had a leftover Christmas pudding lying around the cupboard and made this, it was absolutely delicious.

    I was nibbling on a piece on the way in to work (I know!) and the lady next to me said it smelled so good she wanted to know where I'd bought it. - Your cake allowed stranger to talk on the underground, it's a definite first for me!

    Thank you!

    Lucy
    tvdinners.tv

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brilliant! Thanks so much for such a lovely comment. So happy you enjoyed it xx

    ReplyDelete