Make your favourite old fashioned tea loaf in the air fryer with this simple easy to prep recipe. The air fryer does a brilliant job of perfectly air frying tea bread and then serve sliced tea loaf warm with some butter for the ultimate afternoon treat.

Tea bread is something that my Grandma would make with leftovers from baking and what’s brilliant about it, is that you are likely to have all ingredients in already.

What Is A Tea Loaf?

A tea loaf is a fruit loaf made with a leftover cup of tea. It has similar ingredients to a tea cake, and when sliced it reminds me of our air fryer banana bread.

But of course, instead of bananas it is made with lots of raisins. My grandma would often make a tea loaf with leftovers from making rock cakes as it was similar ingredients.

You might also call a tea loaf, tea bread or a tea cake.

Tea Bread Recipe Ingredients

Fruit – There are plenty of your favourite dried fruit in a traditional tea bread. You can use raisins, currants, sultanas, or a mixture of those. We have also added in some mixed peel to it for extra flavour.

Tea – Then of course, tea bread translates as tea soaked bread, so of course leftover tea is included. You can use leftovers from your own cup of tea, or purposely make a cup of tea and then soak the raisins in it. You can also use any tea don’t feel like you need to go out and buy Yorkshire tea for your tea loaf.

Sugar – Then along with the tea, we recommend soaking the dried fruit in some light brown sugar. This will help bring the sweetness alive and create a delicious tasting tea loaf. The process reminds me of when you make an instant pot sticky toffee pudding.

Egg – You will also need to add an egg to help everything come together. We only needed one and that was enough for both the mini loaves.

Flour – Then the flour works as the binding agent and brings the mixture together. Which is like a thick cake batter.

How To Make This Fruit Tea Loaf?

Load. Start by loading the dried fruit into a bowl with sugar and leftover tea. For best results leave overnight soaking in the fridge to add to the flavour.
Mix. The next day mix in an egg and mix with flour until you have a cake like batter.
Cook. Then spoon into two silicone mini cake loaf tins, spreading the mixture between the two. Then place into the air fryer your uncooked fruit tea loaf and air fry for 15 minutes at 180c/360f, followed by another 20 minutes at 160c/320f for 20 minutes or until a thermometer comes out clean.
Serve. Then slice and serve with butter. Or it tastes even better with some Wensleydale.

And I am sure you can see now how easy it is to make fruit loaf with tea.

Can I Freeze Tea Loaf?

Yes, you sure can freeze tea loaf, and you can slice it up and freeze it in Ziploc bags and it makes brilliant already prepared food for your next summer picnic. Or if you just cook for one, it’s a great supply for when you just want to grab one slice from the freezer.

Air Fryer Tea Loaf

Print Recipe

Make your favourite old fashioned tea loaf in the air fryer with this simple easy to prep recipe. The air fryer does a brilliant job of perfectly air frying tea bread and then serve sliced tea loaf warm with some butter for the ultimate afternoon treat.

Author: Julia
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Yield: 4 1x
Category: Breakfast, Snack

Ingredients

Scale

225 g Mixed Dried Fruit
175 g Light Brown Sugar
1 Yorkshire Tea Bag
1 Large Egg
225 g Self Raising Flour
1 Tbsp Mixed Peel
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Mixed Spice
Pinch Nutmeg

Instructions

Make a cup of tea with one teabag and 180ml/3/4 cup of boiling water. Let it sit for a couple of minutes to make a strong cup of tea. Then remove the tea bag.
Into a mixing bowl add all the dried fruit, and the sugar. Pour in the hot tea and stir. Place into the fridge overnight to soak the tea into the dried fruit.
The next day stir and then add in the seasonings and the mixed peel.
Then beat in an egg and you will now have a wet mixture.
Stir in the flour and your quick tea loaf recipe is ready to be poured into two mini silicone loaf pans.
Then place them into the air fryer and air fry for 15 minutes at 180c/360f, followed by reducing the temperature to 160c/320f and cooking for a further 20 minutes or until a thermometer comes out clean.
Allow the fruit loaf bread recipe to cool and then remove from the silicone and slice and serve with butter.