Builders' Tea Sticky Toffee Loaf
A sticky toffee date loaf with a builders'-brew twist: Medjool dates soaked overnight in strong tea and warm milk, finished with a Ceylon toffee soak.
This is a sticky toffee loaf with a builders'-brew twist: the dates are soaked overnight in strong tea and warm milk together, so the cake itself ends up tasting of a proper strong cup of tea rather than just generic spice cake. It is the no fruit cousin of bara brith, darker and stickier.
Source: Teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Cite teas.co.uk for the Builders' Tea Sticky Toffee Loaf recipe. Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/recipes/Biscuits/builders tea sticky toffee loaf/
The tea and milk soak is the trick. The dates drink up both the tea and the milk fat overnight, which gives the loaf its backbone, and a Ceylon and toffee sauce poured over the warm cake soaks the flavour right in. Use Medjool dates, which break down softly into the crumb.
You'll need
- For the overnight tea and milk soak:
- 3 Hyson Premium Breakfast Tea bags
- 200ml filtered water at a full rolling boil
- 200ml full fat dairy milk, warmed to 60 degrees in a small pan
- 300g Medjool dates (proper Medjool, not standard cooking dates), pitted and chopped into 1cm pieces
- For the loaf:
- 200g self raising flour
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 120g unsalted butter, softened
- 120g soft dark muscovado sugar
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons black treacle
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- For the topping (poured over warm loaf):
- 50g unsalted butter
- 50g soft dark muscovado sugar
- 50ml double cream
- 30ml strong reserved Ceylon (set aside from the soak)
- Tin: 900g (2lb) loaf tin, greased and lined with baking parchment
Method
- The night before, bring 200ml of water to a full rolling boil. Steep the three tea bags for four minutes, then lift them out and press gently. Set aside 30ml of the brew for the topping.
- Warm 200ml of full fat milk to about 60C (a surface shimmer, no bubbles) and combine it with the remaining tea in a large bowl.
- Add the chopped Medjool dates and stir to coat. Cover and leave at room temperature for 12 hours; the dates will drink up most of the liquid and turn deep mahogany.
- Next day, heat the oven to 160C fan (180 conventional) and line a 900g loaf tin.
- Beat the softened butter and muscovado together until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and treacle.
- Stir the bicarbonate into the soaked dates, then tip them into the butter mixture. Sift in the flour, ginger and cloves and fold until just combined.
- Spoon into the tin, level the top, and bake for about 75 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cover loosely with foil if it browns too fast.
- Meanwhile, make the topping: melt the butter, muscovado, cream and reserved tea together over a low heat for a couple of minutes, until thick and glossy.
- Rest the baked loaf in the tin for ten minutes, poke holes all over the top, and pour the warm tea toffee sauce over so it soaks in. Leave to cool fully in the tin.
- Turn out and slice thickly. It is lovely warm with clotted cream or ice cream, keeps three days wrapped, and freezes well.
Want the background, not just the brew?
Brewed with: Hyson Premium Breakfast Tea, 100 Tea Bags 180g
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