Barmbrack
An Irish fruit bread without which there is no Halloween — a festival rooted in the Celtic Samhain. The name comes from the Irish báirín breac, “speckled loaf”. It is a spiced yeast dough full of raisins and orange peel soaked first in strong tea, which keeps the fruit plump and juicy. Traditionally a ring wrapped in paper is baked inside — whoever finds it in their slice will supposedly marry within the year.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Soaking the fruit 60 min
- Mixing 20 min
- Rising 90 min
- Proving 45 min
- Baking 50 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the fruit in tea
Pour the hot, strong tea over the raisins and peel and leave an hour, ideally overnight. The fruit swells and turns juicy. Dry raisins draw moisture from the dough and the bread stales faster.
Ingredients: 250 g raisins and sultanas · 60 g candied orange peel · 200 ml strong black tea
An hour in tea — plump, juicy fruit.Start the yeast
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk with a teaspoon of sugar and leave 10 minutes until foamy. A dough loaded with fruit is heavy — it needs lively yeast.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 20 g fresh yeast · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 60 g brown sugar · 1 pcs egg · 60 g butter · 1½ tsp mixed spice · 1 tsp salt
Knead the spiced dough
Mix the flour with the sugar, spice and salt, add the yeast mixture and egg and knead 5 minutes. Add the butter piece by piece and knead another 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 20 g fresh yeast · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 60 g brown sugar · 1 pcs egg · 60 g butter · 1½ tsp mixed spice · 1 tsp salt
Work in the drained fruit
Drain the fruit very thoroughly in a sieve, pat dry and knead into the dough. Knead briefly, just until evenly spread — long kneading crushes the raisins and turns the dough grey.
Ingredients: 250 g raisins and sultanas · 60 g candied orange peel · 200 ml strong black tea
Well drained and briefly kneaded in.Leave to rise
Cover and leave somewhere warm for 1.5 hours, until clearly risen. With fruit and butter it rises more slowly than plain yeast dough — it may not double, and that is normal.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 20 g fresh yeast · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 60 g brown sugar · 1 pcs egg · 60 g butter · 1½ tsp mixed spice · 1 tsp salt
Shape and add the ring
Shape the dough into a loaf and put it in a greased loaf tin about 30 × 11 cm or a 20–22 cm round tin. To keep the tradition, push in a ring wrapped tightly in baking paper. Cover and prove 45 minutes.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 20 g fresh yeast · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 60 g brown sugar · 1 pcs egg · 60 g butter · 1½ tsp mixed spice · 1 tsp salt
Bake, covering with foil
Bake at 180°C for 45–50 minutes. After 25 minutes cover the top with foil — the sugar and fruit burn quickly. The bread is done when it sounds hollow tapped underneath.
Ingredients: 450 g plain flour · 20 g fresh yeast · 220 ml lukewarm milk · 60 g brown sugar · 1 pcs egg · 60 g butter · 1½ tsp mixed spice · 1 tsp salt
Glaze with syrup and cool
Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water and brush the hot bread as soon as it comes out — the crust turns glossy. Cool on a rack. Serve in thick slices, ideally toasted and buttered, with tea.
Ingredients: 1 tbsp sugar · 2 tbsp boiling water
Syrup on the hot loaf — a glossy crust.
Before you start
Mind the ring
If you bake a ring or coin into the bread, wrap it tightly in baking paper and warn everyone at the table. In the past a pea, a stick and a scrap of cloth were baked in barmbrack too — each foretold a different fate.
With a splash of whiskey
A spoon of Irish whiskey added to the tea for soaking the fruit gives a deeper, grown-up flavour. Most of the liquid is drained off, so little alcohol remains in the bread — but not none.
Stale is best toasted
Barmbrack keeps 4–5 days wrapped in a cloth. As it stales it is best toasted in a toaster or pan, thickly buttered. Great for bread pudding too.
