Irish Tea Bread Recipe

Our Irish Tea Bread Recipe, also known as Tea Brack, is somewhere between a quick bread and a fruit cake. With brown sugar, whole wheat flour, and tea-soaked dried fruit, it is delightfully dense and sweet and is best spread with salted butter and served with a strong cup of tea. Enjoy our teatime take on this Irish classic.

We recommend pairing this recipe with our Wisteria White currant black tea (scroll past the recipe to see additional tea recommendations).

Human beings crave stillness. We wither and cannot grow under the Tyranny of the Urgent. Stopping for tea is a useful tool to help us with this. It is a parenthesis in our day, a space to be still and enjoy a moment with another person, to reflect together, to rejoice and be grateful—a space for Grace.

Mary Alice Higbie

Irish Tea Bread Recipe

Servings: 1 loaf

Prep Time: 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

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Ingredients Instructions Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup (8oz. hot) brewed black tea such as English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast
• 1 ½ cups dried currants
• 1 cup chopped dried dates
• 1 egg
• ½ cup dark brown sugar packed
• 2 Tbsp. butter melted and cooled
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. Kosher salt
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts optional
• 2 Tbsp. turbinado sugar or crystal sugar we used crystal sugar

Instructions

 

1. Pour the hot tea over the dried currants and dates and let soak for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease a bread loaf pan with butter or generously spray with non-stick cooking spray.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until well-combined. If using chopped pecans or walnuts, whisk them in as well. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the egg, brown sugar, and melted butter until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the dried fruit and tea and whisk until well-combined. (Note: Make sure the butter and the tea are not too hot to avoid cooking the egg.)
5. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and fold in until just moistened. Try not to over-mix the batter. It will be thick.
6. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and evenly sprinkle the top with turbinado sugar.
7. Bake for 45 minutes until a toothpick or knife inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Add a little more time in 5-minute intervals if necessary. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a wire rack. Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving with soft salted butter to spread.

Notes

Baking Tips:

1. We do not recommend using a convection setting on an oven for this recipe.
2. You can use any fruity black tea to soak the currants and dates, but we do not recommend floral teas for this recipe.

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Tea Recommendations:

We recommend you serve this afternoon tea recipe with the following loose leaf teas.

We hope you enjoy this Irish Tea Bread Recipe as much as we do!