Nectarine Earl Grey bread

For the opening of my friend Ellie’s yoga studio, I made these as a variation on the peach and pecan bread and the peach tea muffins I’ve made previously.  It’s a dairy free recipe so is great for Ellie and her vegan clients!

Ingredients

4 Earl Grey tea bags

7 oz caster sugar

450 ml nectarine purée (3-4 peaches, chopped, blitzed and sieved)

4 tbsp walnut oil

8 oz self-raising flour

1 oz ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt
1 nectarine, diced

A good sprinkle of vanilla sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.  If using a loaf tin, grease and line with baking paper.  If using mini loaf cases, arrange on a baking tin.
2. Steep 3 of the tea bags in about 150ml boiling water and set aside for a couple of minutes to infuse.
3. Once tea looks nice and strong, pour into a large mixing bowl with the caster sugar and beat well to dissolve the sugar.  Set aside to cool for a while.
4. Once the tea syrup has cooled, add the nectarine purée and oil and beat well.
5. Sift the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and the contents of 1 tea bag into the nectarine mixture, beating to combine well.
6. Finally, fold in the diced nectarine.
7. Spoon the mixture into loaf tin/ cases, arrange whole pecans on top and sprinkle with vanilla sugar.
8. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean (about 45-50 for a large tin or 25-30 mins for mini loaves). 
9. Leave to cool on a wire rack for about 10 mins before removing from tin (and if slicing, allow to cool for an hour out of the tine to prevent it from crumbling).