Earl Grey Bara Brith

A delicately perfumed twist on a classic low-fat tea loaf, that’s equally delicious served plain, lightly buttered or even with a wedge of crumbly cheese on the side. You can also use regular self-raising flour if the loaf doesn’t need to be gluten-free.

By The Good Housekeeping Cookery TeamPublished: 03 August 2023

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Bara Brith originates from Wales and we've steeped our fruit in this recipe with Earl Grey tea for a more perfumed flavour.

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Yields:

10 serving(s)

Prep Time:

15 mins

Cook Time:

1 hr

Total Time:

1 hr 15 mins

Cal/Serv:

270

Ingredients

3
Earl Grey tea bags
200 g
sultanas
200 g
raisins
150 g
dark muscovado sugar
2
medium eggs
225 g
gluten-free self-raising flour blend (see intro)
2 tsp.
ground mixed spice
Finely grated zest 1 lemon

Directions

1. Step 1Put the tea bags into a medium heatproof bowl, pour over 150ml freshly-boiled water and leave to steep for 3min. Remove tea bags, squeezing lightly over the bowl to extract flavour, and discard. Add the sultanas and raisins to the bowl and leave to soak for at least 1hr (or overnight).
2. Step 2Preheat oven to 170°C (150°C fan) mark 3 and line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment.
3. Step 3In a large bowl using a handheld electric whisk, beat the sugar and eggs until pale and slightly thickened. Sift in the flour, mixed spice and a pinch of fine salt, then add the lemon zest and soaked dried fruit mixture. Mix using a large spoon.
4. Step 4 Scrape into the prepared tin and smooth to level. Bake for 1hr, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5min, then transfer on to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Step 5Serve in slices with salted butter, if you like (see intro).

TO STORE:
Once cool, wrap loaf in clingfilm and keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Per serving (without butter):

Calories: 270
Protein: 5g
Total fat: 2g
Saturates: 0g
Carbs: 58g
Total sugars: 41g
Fibre: 2g

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The Good Housekeeping Cookery Team

An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).

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