Barm Brack

Never heard of it, is it a fruit loaf Witzend?

I call this 'cold tea loaf' and have made it for years, always popular. I add 8ozs died fruit and 4 ozs sugar to the tea then in the morning I add a beaten egg and some SF flour till it looks 'right' (I think about 8ozs) and bake in a greased loaf tin. Fat less recipe though I do butter the slices! I think this is similar to Barm Brack?

Never heard of this is it a northern recipe ?

Does it have to have yeast in it?

Or is it similar to Bara Brith?

I don’t eat breakfast but I have either tea or banana bread when I start to feel hungry (try to do an overnight fast and push out the time that I eat for as long as possible; makes it easier if I know I don’t have to prepare anything to break the fast). I add glacé cherries, dried blueberries, powdered beetroot and glacé cherries to my tea bread. Think I throw in some chopped walnuts as well ( haven’t made it for a while as I always seem to have a lot of old bananas to use up). I’ve always measured the tea bread ingredients using cups but for some reason weighed the flour for banana bread until I had a light bulb moment and, after weighing the flour worked out how many cups 8 oz was. I might be kidding myself but, made with wholemeal flour I think it’s quite healthy. And, of course, the tea bread doesn’t have fat in it and I reduce the sugar content slightly.

It’s like Bara Brith a Welsh tea bread totally moorish.

Even moreish hope you enjoy it I know I would!

My recipe has whiskey in!

I had this served with a slice of cheese a few tears ago in Yorkshire. I was assured that earing both together was the way to go. It was delicious. I have made it many times since.

My Irish Mum used to make a special Halloween one with hidden lucky trinkets baked into it eg a ring and a sixpence. After the initial excitement of finding the trinkets they were usually left aside and she’d wash them and reuse next year. Unless of course you found the coveted sixpence. That went in the lucky finder’s piggy bank.

Witzend do you mean Bara Brith it's a Welsh fruit loaf . I will look and see if I have a recipe for it. But I do have a very good fatless fruit loaf recipe that was my mom's . Will post it later plus the Bara Brith recipe when I find it.

Bara Brith means speckled bread apparently.

Barm Brack has Irish roots whereas Bara Brith is Welsh.

This is similar to the recipe my Irish Mum used. The Irish version is barm brack which is the anglicised translation of the Irish words bairin breac meaning speckled loaf.

www.food.com/recipe/irish-barm-brack-fruit-loaf-20918

I’ve used this recipe a few times - www.theslimmingfoodie.com/tea-loaf/#Easy-tea-loaf

Ive made this nd cookedit in the airfrytr at 160

Bara Brith

250g mixed dried fruit
100g dark brown sugar
225ml hot tea I would use 2 teabags
Quarter teaspoon ground cinnamon
Quarter teaspoon grated nutmeg
I large egg
250g SR flour

Oven 160°c
Lined 1lb loaf tin

Put dried fruit and sugar in bowl cover with tea I leave the tea bags in for stronger flavour. Once cold cover and leave over night
Take out teabags .
Add rest of ingredients mix well.
Put into tin .
Bake 50-60 mins until skewer comes out clean
Put in cooling wire of 30 mins before turning out of the tin. Cool before slicing.

My mom's tea bread but my version
I use 400ml mug as measure.

225g of mix dried cranberries,cherries and blueberries.
( Mom used normal dried fruit)
Half mug of tea made with 2 teabags
Half mug of dark brown sugar
1 full and level mug of SR flour
I medium egg

Oven 160°c
Lined 1lb loaf tin

Soak fruit and sugar over night in tea leaving in tea bags. Take out tea bags .
Add rest of the ingredients mix well .
Put into tin
Bake 50-60 mins until skewer clean.
Once cold wrap in baking paper and put into tin or wrap in foil .
Leave 2-3 days before cutting the top will feel sticky.
Don't worry it won't go mouldy the action of the tea fruit and sugar makes it's sticky and morish .

Can be made with gluten free flour but once mixed add some milk to make it looser as the gluten free flour needs more moisture than ordinary flour.

Why I say take out tea bags my mom forgot luckily I spotted them still whole in the mix before she put it in the oven .
Spread both tea breads with spread but delicious with cheese or by itself .

Thank you I didn't know Barm Brack was Irish . Only heard of Bara Brith was Welsh . Love learning new things GN is it's own open university. 😊

These recipes sound similar to another I haven’t made for years. In addition to the overnight soak of dried fruit in the tea there was a cupful of All Bran in it.

I’ve made the tea-soaked fruit loaf and called it Bara Brith but my grandmother made a proper yeasted one once a week along with her normal bread production.

1lb 2oz bread flour
1oz butter
9oz dried fruit
1tsp mixed spice
1tsp yeast
1tsp salt
1.5tsp treacle
14 fl oz water

Mix, prove and bake as per normal bread.

Love Barm Brack, my Mum used to make it many moons ago.

I'm in Ireland and barm brack- often shortened to brack- was the type of fruit bread with yeast as in Pantglas recipe. The type without yeast where fruit is soaked in tea, mentioned by other posters, was known as tea brack. Though the both have fruit, they taste fairly different- barm brack has a much lighter texture. In my childhood, brack was usually bought, and available all year round, but at Halloween it had a ring. These days, it's available in every shop - I bought one yesterday- lovely!

I make mine with all sultanas, but at Christmas I add cherries. I always thought it was an Irish recipe as all my Aunties made it.
Very easy and never fails.

I bought some homemade once at a campsite in Wales. It gave me the worst indigestion ever so have never eaten it since!