An old fashioned English teacake recipe that is so easy to recreate at home. These delicious vegan fruit teacakes are lightly spiced sweet buns, best enjoyed toasted with lashings of butter!

In my pastry chef days making bread was the first job of the day.  Every day.  And it’s one of those jobs that, after a little interaction from you, kinda takes care of itself.  Pottering around doing other stuff while the yeast does its wonderful thing.  And the smell.  There are very few things that equal the smell of fresh baked bread.  Except teacakes (or any spiced bread) because you take that wonderful bread baking smell and you add all those warming, divine spices to it.

I know a lot of people are nervous when it comes to making bread – maybe it’s the (sometimes) temperamental nature of yeast or the time it takes for dough to prove or even all the physical activity that’s involved in kneading – but personally, making bread is one of my most favourite things.

How to make teacakes

The secret with all bread recipes is the kneading and proving.  Knead.  Prove.  Knead.  Prove.  In that order.  It’s as simple and complicated as that.

Warm the milk and sugar (microwave or on the stove) to just tepid.  When you dip your finger in, it shouldn’t feel hot or cold.  Whisk in the yeast, cover with a tea-towel and set aside.

Meanwhile put the flour, butter, salt and spices in a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer.  Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until no large lumps of butter remain.

Once the yeast liquid has a frothy top add to the bowl of dry and mix together until it forms a dough – use the dough hook if you’re using a stand mixer.

If making by hand, tip the dough out onto your surface and knead for 5-10 minutes, stretching the dough until it’s soft and elastic.  If using a stand mixer use a low speed for 5 minutes again until the dough is soft and stretchy.  For both methods knead in the sultanas for a minute or two until well incorporated into the dough.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea-towel and leave somewhere warm until the dough has doubled in size.  This can take anywhere from 30-90 minutes dependent on ambient temperature.  A sunny windowsill, airing cupboard, warm kitchen, dough setting on oven or on top of the boiler are all places I’ve utilised!

Stage Two

Tip the well risen dough onto your surface and divide into 12 equal pieces.  You can go so far as to weigh them individually to ensure they’re even.  Weigh the whole dough then divide the total by 12 to get the weight for each roll.  You can also eyeball them if you’re less fussed about aesthetic!!

Place the rolls on a lined baking tray (or trays) spaced a little apart so they have room to prove.  For the second prove again place the somewhere warm until roughly doubled in size.

Roughly 10 minutes before they’re ready, preheat your oven.

Finishing the teacakes

Mix a little milk with a little agave or maple syrup then generously brush all over the tops of the teacakes.  Do this fairly gently so that you don’t push any of the air out of the teacakes.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden

Storing the teacakes

Homemade bread products are generally best eaten within a day or two of baking, but as these teacakes are going to be toasted they can be kept in an airtight container for a few days.  They can also be frozen, simply defrost before splitting, toasted and devouring what taste like freshly baked teacakes with lashings of vegan butter!

Looking for even more delicious bread recipes?  Try these:

Strawberry Jam Cinnamon Rolls

Date and Nut Spiced Fruit Loaf

Cheese and Herb Bread

Blueberry Twisty Bread with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

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