A twist on the classic British tea loaf, this recipe for chocolate ginger tea bread is reminiscent of chai tea. It’s robust in flavour, easy-to-make and cuts well. Smother a slice with butter for a delicious and restorative snack.
I’ve had my eye on this tea bread ever since I bought Paul A Young’s book Adventures with Chocolate last year. I’m not quite sure why it’s taken me so long to actually make it, but with tea being this month’s special ingredient for We Should Cocoa, I was spurred into action.
Chocolate Ginger Earl Grey Tea Bread
Assam tea was Paul’s tea of choice, But as I didn’t have any of that, I used Earl Grey instead. Earl Grey is a black tea but has the addition of Bergamot which gives it a lovely scent and flavour. Because of this, I didn’t use the orange zest that’s in the original recipe.
Bergamot is an uplifting citrus fruit and is often used to help relieve anxiety. This combined with the antioxidants in the tea and chocolate, as well as the anti-inflammatory properties of ginger and detoxifying cardamom, makes this loaf positively loaded with health giving goodies.
It’s best to be organised with this tea bread as you need to soak the fruit for a few hours before mixing in the other ingredients. I changed the quantities of fruit around as I though too much crystallised ginger might be a bit overwhelming.
I also used a mix of wholemeal spelt and plain white flour as well as a little quinoa flour for added nutrition and protein. This isn’t at all necessary though.
The house smelt absolutely wonderful throughout the process of making this cake. First a wonderful scent arose from grinding the cardamom seeds, then soaking the fruit in tea and orange was highly fragrant and finally the long baking released a heady mix of all of the above with the addition of ginger.
What Did We Think?
CityHippyFarmGirl reported that she was disappointed with this chocolate, ginger and cardamom tea bread when she made it last year. But I was really pleased with it. True, this is not for the faint hearted. It has strong robust flavours and tastes quite strongly of tea. In my youth, I would not have liked this loaf.
The smell and taste are quite similar to a cup of chai. And if you smother butter on top, it helps to reinforce this impression. The loaf is moist, not too sweet and cuts really well. It also lasted well over a week. Not I might add because we didn’t like it, but because we were away for a few days.
CT thought it was good restorative provender following a few hours slogging away outdoors. He pronounced that a little went a long way and one slice was enough to satisfy. I can, however, vouch for the fact that he did actually enjoy it and managed to have one slice on quite a few occasions.
Other Tea Recipes You Might Like
- Chai masala chocolate cakes
- Earl grey fruit cake
- Matcha chocolate roll
- Matcha madeleines
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this chocolate ginger tea loaf, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Chocolate Ginger Tea Bread. PIN IT.
Chocolate Ginger Tea Bread
Ingredients
- 200 ml Earl Grey tea needs to be quite strong (I used 4 tsp of tea leaves)
- 150 g raisins
- 200 g crystallised ginger finely chopped
- 10 cardamom pods
- 75 g muscovado sugar
- 1 large egg (I used a duck egg)
- 200 g flour (I used 100g wholemeal spelt, 80g plain white, 20g quinoa)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 100 g dark chocolate (70%) roughly chopped
Instructions
- In a large bowl, pour the hot tea over the raisins and ginger. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave to soak overnight.200 ml Earl Grey tea, 150 g raisins, 200 g crystallised ginger
- When you’re ready to bake, extract the seeds from the cardamom pods and grind them as finely as you can with a pestle and mortar. Add to the soaked fruit together with the sugar and stir.10 cardamom pods, 75 g muscovado sugar
- Beat in the egg.1 large egg
- Sift in the flours and baking powder and gently mix together along with the chocolate until everything is incorporated.200 g flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 100 g dark chocolate
- Spoon the mixture into a lined 2lb (1kg) loaf tin and baked at 160℃ (140℃ fan, 320℉, Gas 3) for 1 hr and 20 mins, reducing the temperature to 150C after first 45 mins.
- Cool in the tin for 30 mins then turn onto a rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Post updated with recipe card October 2022
Mochin says
Hello! Can’t wait to try this out –I adore chocolate, the scent of bergamot, cardamom as well as ginger! Raisins go really well with orange zest too, especially when paired with carrot (*winks* carrot cake) By the way, do i add any oil or melted butter?
Choclette says
Hello Mochin. It’s a very flavoursome cake. No need for any oil or butter, although butter spread on a slice is very nice 🙂
Mochin says
Noted! Thank you 😀
Maya Russell says
I think I’d love this as I love cardamon.
Choclette says
Dharm – thank you and hope to see you again.
Sushma – the ginger was certainly obvious.
Suelle – your choice is about to get harder as I hope to post the round-up soon.
Anon – thanks, chocolate is magic 😉
Johanna – I used very strong tea and yes, the bergamot was present.
Christine – it’s surprising how little 20 pods grind down too. I didn’t have the 2 teaspoons stated in the recipe.
Christine Kaltoft says
20 cardamom pods?! Sounds like a lot! Several of my favourite flavours in here though so I’ll definitely put it on the ‘to try’ list. Many thanks!
Johanna GGG says
sounds delicious – all the sort of flavours I love – as you can tell by my recent earl grey cupcakes – would be interested to see if the bergamot is stronger in this cake!
Suelle says
I don’t know how I missed this post! Another lovely looking teabread to add to the challenge entries. I really must make one of the recipes, but it’s hard to make a choice now!
Sushma Mallya says
That’s a perfectly baked cake, ginger must have given a extra flavour..yum!
Dharm says
Nice blog you have here! I’m a great fan of chocolate too and I’m surprised I’ve not visited here before!! Keep up the great work!
Choclette says
Tammy – thank you for your kind comment and thanks for following too.
MaryMoh – a slice of this goes very well with a cup of tea.
KitchenMaid – not showing off, just desperate to have something to put into the round-up 😉 Really good to hear that Paul’s a great guy. In what context did you get to meet him?
Milly – thanks for following and thanks for the info on your giveaway. I did check it out, but I’m rather a long way from London.
Milly says
love your blog, I’m following! Would love you to enter my amazing GIVEAWAY – pasta lesson and meal with wine for two xx
The KitchenMaid says
Another one? Now you’re just showing off! Seriously, I love the sound of this as I adore cardamom. AND (my turn to show off), I met Paul A Young a few years ago and he was such an amazing, interesting and all-round super guy. I think he deserves every success!
cupcakegirl says
My boyfriend adores ginger and tea (he’s a little obsessed with the latter) I may have to make this for him
MaryMoh says
That’s a beautiful loaf. Would be so tea for tea with friends.
Tammy says
How utterly splendid! This loaf looks perfect and sounds fantastic!
You have a lovely blog!
xx,
Tammy
Choclette says
Baking Addict – yes I saw a recipe for earl grey biscuits that looked rather good. Don’t leave your bread too late!!!
Brittany – I had some chocolate and earl grey ganache a while back when I went to a chocolate tasting and it was a great combination.
Catherine – it’s alright, I won’t force feed you 😉 It’s fine just to enjoy the aromas – they were pretty good.
Jill – thank you. On the whole I quite like simplicity, but sometimes it’s good to have a big mix.
Foodie – thank you
foodie and the chef says
What an interesting flavour combination – looks gorgeous.
Jill Colonna says
Amazing. I’ve tried chocolate and earl grey and I’ve tried chocolate cardamom and ginger in macarons but adding them all together with the orange and raisins too? Packed with gorgeous flavours – sounds gorgeous!
Catherine says
Oooh I can almost smell the lovely aromas! Not sure if it would be my “cup of tea” (sorry), but I’d definitely try a slice!
Les rêves d'une boulangère (Brittany) says
What a unique recipe! I’m loving the chocolate and early grey idea.
Baking Addict says
This looks great. I’ve tried earl grey in biscuits which were fantastic. I’ve just seen a recipe for banana and earl grey bread but I’m waiting for my bananas to ripen.
Choclette says
Janice – you could be right. tea is such an individual taste isn’t it? I quite liked the bergamot flavour.
CityHippy – All good things come to those who wait (or so we’re led to believe)!. I couldn’t tell the difference between yours and mine – even the cracks looked to be in the same place.
Kath – oh good, so glad you are going to enter. Yes you still have until midnight (if you so wished) on Friday. Though, as I don’t mean to be up compiling the post at just gone midnight, you’d be all right for a few more hours! Look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Celia – but do you like it?
celia says
Bergamot! Is that what’s in Earl Grey tea!! I always wondered why it had such a distinctive perfume! Thanks for the enlightenment, Choc! 🙂
Kath says
I keep meaning to buy tea.. Do I still have time? I have the idea and everything just need the tea.
cityhippyfarmgirl says
About time young lady 🙂
Yours looks much more appealing than mine. Glad you were happy with it. I think the fresh cardamom would have smelt beautiful in it.
Janice says
Interesting. I think perhaps it might be more palatable with the Assam which is just a black tea without any added flavouring.