These fruit-filled teacakes are a great favourite across the region and are best served split, toasted and spread with butter – delicious!  They can be made by hand, or in an electric breadmaker.

Ingredients

• 10 fl oz/280 ml milk
• 1lb (450g) white bread (strong) flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons (40g) caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons (40g) butter or margarine
• 2 oz (55g) currants
• 2 oz (55g) sultanas
• 1 teaspoon dried yeast, or 1 oz (28g) fresh yeast

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients; rub in the butter or margarine
2. Mix the yeast with the tepid milk and leave in a warm place until it froths
3. Blend the milk and yeast with the dry ingredients and knead the dough thoroughly until it feels elastic and is no longer sticky (around 10 minutes)
4. Leave the dough in a warm place until it has risen to roughly double its original size
5. Divide the dough into around 8 portions shape into balls. Flatten out each ball into a disc about 1cm (half-inch) thick
6. Place the discs on a greased baking tray about 1in/2.5cm apart. Cover them with oiled clear film or clean damp tea-towel and leave in a warm place to rise until the discs are almost double in size
7. Brush the tops with milk and bake in a pre-heated oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 for 15-18 minutes, or until golden.
8. Turn out on a wire rack and leave to cool slightly. Split and eat them warm, or toast them from cold.

If you use an electric bread-maker, you can set it to ‘dough’ setting and let the machine take steps 1-4 above for you; follow your machine instructions for the order ingredients go into the bread-maker.