Recipe: Chai-Spiced Bread

CHAI-SPICED BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

For the bread

  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (I used butter.)
  • 1/2 cup prepared tea or water (I used tea. Since I’m breast-feeding I used organic Mother’s Milk tea that has no caffeine. I also just dipped the tea bag in the hot water for only a few seconds as I didn’t want it too strong.)
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (We didn’t have any so I omitted it.)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (Since I didn’t use cardamom I upped the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon.)
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (Again, I used a bit more. Maybe 1/4 teaspoon.)

For the glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 to 5 teaspoons milk
  • additional ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Heat oven to 400°F. Grease bottom only of 8×4 or 9×5 inch loaf pan with shortening or cooking spray. (I used butter flavored cooking spray.)
  2. In large bowl, beat granulated sugar and butter with electric mixer on medium speed untill fluffy. On low speed, beat in tea, 1/3 cup milk, 2 teaspoons vanilla, and the eggs until the ingredients are well combined. They should appear somewhat curdled. Stir in remaining bread ingredients just until moistened. Spread in pan.
  3. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Do not underbake. Cool in pan on cooling rack 10 minutes. Loosen sides of bread from pan. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool 30 minutes.
  4. In small bowl, stir powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and 3 teaspoons of the milk, adding more milk by teaspoonfuls until spreadable. Spread glaze over bread. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon.
  5. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Comments are closed.