Spicy Tea Bread

This was my mother's recipe which has been modified from her great grandmother's. My mother's family is from Great Britain and Germany so they brought tea time and a love of spicy sweets with them and this is the result.

• Preparation Time: 20 mins
• Cooking Time: 1 hr 15 mins
• Total Time: 1 hr 35 mins
• Calories: 350 Calories

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper
• 1 (8 ounce) package pitted dates
• ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons butter, each cut into quarters
• 1 ¼ cups strong hot black tea
• ¾ cup walnuts (Optional)

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and dust a 9x5-inch loaf pan with white sugar.

Step 2

Combine dates, sugar, molasses, and butter in a large bowl. Pour tea over date mixture and mix well; set aside to cool, 15 to 20 minutes.

Step 3

Whisk all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, nutmeg, cardamom, and white pepper together in a bowl.

Step 4

Stir egg and vanilla extract into cooled date mixture. Add 1/3 the flour mixture to the date mixture; mix well. Repeat 2 more times with remaining flour mixture until batter is just combined; fold in walnuts. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Step 5

Bake in the preheated oven until a knife inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.