Scandinavian Tea Ring

This is another recipe from the teaching your child to cook recipe, but my daughter decided to take an afternoon nap on the sofa and left me to make this! Oh well, thought it sounded like a nice cake to have with tea.

Ingredients

2 tsps dried yeast
1/4 pint warm milk and water
12 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 oz butter
1 egg
2 oz dried fruit
4 oz sugar
2 tbsps water
3 oz icing sugar
Angelica and glacé cherries

Sprinkle the yeast on top of the warmed milk, stir in and leave for 10-15 minutes until frothy. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and rub in 1 oz fat. Break the egg into a bowl and whisk lightly. Make a hole in the flour, then pour in the egg and milk. Using a wooden spoon gradually work in the flour to make a soft dough. Beat well until smooth, cover and leave to rise.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface, knead lightly and roll out to an oblong 8×10 inches. Spread the remaining butter over the dough then scatter over the fruit and 2 oz of the sugar. Damp the edges and then roll up like a Swiss roll, then form into a ring pressing the ends firmly together. Use scissors to make incisions 3/4 of the way through right round the ring at 1/2 inch intervals. Leave to rise again.

Dissolve the remaining sugar and water and boil until it’s syrupy, then brush over the ring. Bake at 220 for 10 minutes then reduce to 190 for 10-20 minutes. Once golden transfer to a cooling rack. Then sift the icing sugar and gradually add cold water to make a glacé icing, pour over the ring and decorate.

This is a good recipe for the weekend as you can do it in stages. We made the dough this morning and have to say was near impossible to beat with a spoon! We had to get our hands in to get a smooth dough. The recipe doesn’t mention any kneading at this stage, my limited experience of working with yeast was telling me to knead it! I didn’t and it did double in size during the first rise.

I had to do the rest myself at this point! I think the cutting bit was a great idea, gives it a really interesting shape! After adding the fruit and then shaping and cutting I left it to rise for over an hour but it didn’t double in size. I carried on anyway.

I think the idea is that as soon as it comes out of the oven you are meant to move to a cooling rack. I had left it for only 5 minutes and the sugar that had poured off it had welded it to the tray! Needed a bit of elbow grease to get it off!

I couldn’t find Angelica, I think it’s a plant but candied Angelia was often used to decorate cakes. I just had to use cherries!

I wanted to have this warm but felt I should let it cool slightly so that the icing doesn’t just pour off, I think it was still a touch warm when I added the icing but I just couldn’t wait!

I did really love this, it’s an alternative fruit cake/tea bread. You could reheat to serve warm..

Would I make this again? Yes, would maybe add some cinammon with the fruit next time