Fig & Chai Tea Bread - Holiday Baking

First... Sorry for not posting anything here for a while, to be  more specifically since before our 2 week vacation in November. Maybe I should write a blog post about places to visit and eat in Portland and Chicago we had such a great time and we ate delicious food everywhere we went.

Well but for now let's post something useful for the Holidays.

Holiday baking  can be a great way to create personal homemade gifts for people you care about, without getting exhausted by holiday shopping plus it will leave your kitchen smelling so deliciously great.You won't break the bank and can avoid lines and parking lot panic by spending an afternoon at home instead of the mall specially if you are expecting to get hit by a snow storm inside in a warm kitchen is the best place to be.

This year I tried this new recipe for a holiday tea bread and we wrapped with a jar of my winter jam flavor.A Great gift for family, friends and co-workers.


For this recipe I used paper loaf pan  you can order from amazon or buy at your favorite baking supplies store.
these are the ones I used : 6 inch by 2.5 inch by 2 inch loaf pan



Fig and Chai Tea Bread
(this recipe makes about 3 loaf of the size above) 

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups  organic all purpose flour
1 cup of dark brown sugar 
2/3 cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of ground clove
1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
 a pinch of salt
1 cup of chopped fresh figs
1 cup strong chai tea *see notes
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
a couple of quartered figs to decorate on the top


*  Strong Chai tea: boil 1 1/4 cup of water add 4 bags of chai tea of your choice one cinnamon stick and 1/2 teaspoon of whole cloves and zests of an orange and  let it steep at least an hour, strain it before using  

How to make it:

Buttered your loaf pans and preheat the oven to 350 F.

In your mixer  cream the butter and sugar well and add one egg at a time, beat well. Add the vanilla extract and  the mix.

Mix the salt, baking soda, and spices to the flour and  add the milk to the chai tea

Add the flour mix and the chai/milk to the mixer in 3 parts alternating. 

Gently fold in the chopped figs

Pour batter into the prepared pans, place the quartered figs on top of the batter and press down gently into the batter so they will stay where you want them

Then bake for 50 minutes  or until the skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

 Once is cool off wrap them in cellophane, use some baker's twine and stickers or make your own label to make it pretty. And it's

ready! Enjoy.

Pri

get all of you ingredients

Fig Chai Tea Bread factory in my kitchen

Ready!