Chai Spiced Breakfast Prunes

These breakfast prunes, preserved in black tea, honey, and plenty of warming spices, make a wonderful addition to your morning porridge, are delicious stirred through yoghurt, and can replace dates in a batch of extra special scones.

Ingredients:

  • 400g prunes (or mixed dried fruits such as: currants, sultanas, dates, apricots, pears, apples)
  • 100ml orange juice or juice of 1 orange
  • 250 ml water
  • 2 x earl grey or english breakfast tea bags
  • 1 tablespoons honey
  • 2 teaspoons raw sugar

Chai spices:

  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp  ground nutmeg 
  • ½ tsp ground clove
  • ½ tsp ground cardamom
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • 2 strips of orange peel

Method:

In a small saucepan bring 200 ml water to the boil and add in the earl grey teabags. Turn off the heat and allow the tea to brew.

Peel strips of zest off your orange avoiding the white pith and set aside, then squeeze oranges to make 100ml of juice. TIP: peel all of the oranges first, keep a few for this recipe and freeze the rest of the peel for another!

Once tea is brewed, take out the teabags, turn the heat back onto low and add in the orange juice, sugar and honey, stirring to dissolve. Add the prunes, spices and orange peel and simmer for 30 minutes, add ing more water or juice if needed.
 
Turn off the heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Keep chai spiced prunes in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 week.
 
If you want to do a double batch and preserve your chai spiced prunes, pack them in to sterilised jars and heat process for 30 minutes.

If you are new to preserving, or want to refresh your memory, check out out guides on how to sterilise jars and the heat processing method.