From the Gaelic bairín breac meaning speckled loaf, this is the perfect tea time treat for a spot of fortune telling on Halloween. Recipe from the National Trust.
(Originally published 03/04/2024)
Prep time: Overnight
Cooking time: 1 hour
Makes: 1 loaf
Ingredients
100g raisins
100g currants
100g sultanas
50g mixed candied peel
50g glace cherries
200g brown sugar
300ml cold black tea
1 lemon
2 eggs
250g self-raising flour
1tsp mixed spice
A pinch of salt
1. Soak it all in
Pop the dried fruit ( 100g raisins, 100g currants, 100g sultanas, 50g mixed candied peel and 50g glace cherries (quartered)) along with 200g brown sugar, 300ml cold black tea and the grated zest of the lemon into a bowl, give it a mix and leave to soak for at least three hours. We did ours overnight to get maximum flavour and juiciness.
Your fruits should now be looking plump and gorgeous.
2. Let’s barmBAKE!
When you’re ready to get baking, preheat the oven to 180°C and grease or line a 900g loaf tin.
Add the 2 eggs, 250g self-raising flour, 1tsp of your mums very own homemade mixed spice and a pinch of salt to the now not so dry dried fruit and stir it all together until you have a thoroughly combined batter. If you want to partake in a very traditional Halloween fortune-telling using the barmbrack, you also will need to include:
- a pea
- a stick
- a piece of cloth
- a small coin
- a ring
- and a bean
The meanings of which can be found on the Barmbrack wikipedia page. Please beware choking on almost all of the above if you do include them
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.
Bake in the oven for 1.5 to 1.75 hours until the family knitting needle (aka cake tester) comes out clean.
Leave to cool, and then gather your parents to serve them some sliced and buttered with a cup of tea.
Dink and sink!
Food for Thought
Lizzy says: “I love a pagan background Halloween background story and this bread really makes me think of witches – and not the ones in costumes. However, I am not a big fan of currants and definitely not in bread. While this was a top tier recipe for this kind of bread – this wasn’t my style of dessert. As a result, Kate and I handed this bread off to our parents who are of the fruit loaf era. 4/10.”
Kate says: ” Barmbrack has been on the to gasp list thanks to me for a very long time, but I’m not really sure why because I really dislike fruitcake, and this is basically a loaf fruitcake? Good thing we made it while we were visiting our parents who loved it. I think you can tell from the dink and sink that neither Lizzy or I were the biggest fans but that is more of a personal taste thing than a this recipe was not good thing. It is very dense and fruity – I would say at least 3/4 dried fruits… That’s about the only opinion I have to give…. 3/10″
3.5/10 Gasps
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