Halloween can be fun. Little kids dressed in the most ridiculous outfits by their parents. Yep, they look really cute now but boy are they gonna need some major therapy in years to come! This unfortunately is not what comes to mind when I think about Halloween. No, the images I conjure up are those of me having to literally RUN from the bus stop to my house when I had finished work on Halloween night.
Why, you may ask was I running home? It wasn't with anticipation and excitement of changing into my costume to go out trick or treating. No, it was mainly to do with the little feckers lying in wait for an unsuspecting innocent like my good self to walk by so they could throw a banger at me. Not a fun task for most people, probably viewed as dangerous in the majority of minds. But for a gang of teenage boys what could be more fun than throwing a lit firework at someone and watching with amusement as it goes off almost causing a coronary, not to mention 3rd degree burns. Oh how they would chuckle at the memories the next day. Hilarious, not! Hence the Nike air max were firmly strapped to my feet and the four minute mile relived every year on the 31st of October.
As I have matured a little, bought a house of my very own and am surrounded by lots of young children the day in question has taken on a slightly sunnier glow for me. I look forward now to seeing my nieces and nephews in the cutest of costumes filling there faces full of e-number packed sweets and candy. Yesterday I was greeted by a very cute 2 year old pussy cat and 1 year old spider complete with all eight legs and googly eyes. Then there is the incessant ringing of the door bell which when answered you are greeted by chants of "Trick or treat, trick or treat, give us something nice to eat, if you don't we don't care, we'll pull down your underwear!" Charming, but when the chanters are ensconced in lady bug, padded super hero or princess costumes you can't help but smile all gooey eyed and load there bags full of scrummy treats.
So while it is fair to say that Halloween is not my favourite holiday of the year it is fast growing on me, and, as it has it's very own cake here in Ireland it is the perfect excuse for me to indulge in my favourite pass time and break out the baking tins and apron. Below you will find a recipe for a delicious Barm Brack which my husband devoured single handed in 2 days flat. The little bite I managed to prise from his hand was deliciously moist and full of flavour, so enjoy, and don't forget to hide a ring inside for someone to find! But don't worry if you don't find the ring inside, I never once got the slice containing that fateful piece of plastic but I am none the less happily married to the most wonderful of men. Awwwwww. Now go get baking. Go on, be off with you!
Barm Brack
Should serve approx 8, serves 1 in this house!
200ml/7floz Strong Tea
150g/5oz Muscovado or Soft Brown Sugar
50ml/2floz Whiskey
300g/10 1/2oz Dried Fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants, candied peel)
1 egg
150g/5oz Plain Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
2tsp Mixed Spice
1tbsp Honey
1. When the tea is warm stir in the sugar. Add the whiskey and the dried fruit and allow to sit overnight.
2. The next day, preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.
3. Line a 20cm/8in round baking tin with greaseproof paper.
4. Beat the egg and add it into the fruit and tea mixture.
5. Fold in the sieved flour, baking powder and mixed spice.
6. Pour it into the prepared tin and bake for 60-70 minutes. It is cooked when a clean skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
7. While still hot brush with the honey to form a nice glaze and leave to cool in the tin.
8. Serve warm or cold with lashings of butter.
Hi, You obviously do not know your "brack". The recipe you have posted is a "tea" brack and not a "barm" brack - which is something entirely different.
ReplyDeleteBaking Academy of Ireland,
ReplyDeleteThank you for pointing that out to me, and yes you are perfectly correct, as the recipe above does not call for barm yeast it is therefore not technically a barm brack. I think most home bakers these days use baking powder in it's place so I suppose only commercially produced bracks that use barm yeast should probably still be called barm bracks. I have a pile of hand scribbled recipes from my mam with bits crossed out and bits added in, a habit I find I have today, and so at some stage she felt soacking the fruit in tea would make for a nice moist brack, and all those I have made this for would agree. I find that recipes evolve with each new person who makes it as they add their own twist or take out something that doesn't suit their tastes and that has happened here. I have over the past few years come across quite a few recipes for barm brack that call for soaking the fruit in tea overnight so maybe somewhere along the line some confusion has crept in between the distinction between the two types of brack.
Thank you for posting my comment and your reply. However, I can assure there is no confusion on my part - the two products are totally different.
ReplyDeleteA tea brack is really a cake - in fact it is one of the items we teach on our "introduction to cake baking" course.
A barm brack is a classical and traditional product that can be claimed as one of the few truly Irish baked products available to the consumer. As an experienced baker I am disappointed if there is confusion here but I simply wish to set the matter straight. The traditional Barm Brack is a fermented sweet dough product made with yeast (bakers have not used barm for well over 100 years now) and bears no resemblance in either taste or appearance to a tea brack.
If you are interested in the origins of "Barm" I will be only too pleased to supply details.
Thank you
Derek,
ReplyDeleteFirstly I was not implying the confusion lay with you. As a professional I have no doubt that you have a full understanding of the differences. I meant that given that I have encountered a few recipes for "Barm" brack that include a step to soak the fruit in tea it would appear that others have confused the two over time.
I am very grateful to you for highlighting the differences to me. I am not a professional baker and nor do I claim to be. I bake as a hobby and this blog is a means for me to chart my amateur baking experiences. For the most part I like to bake things that I remember from my past. For some I have recipes from my mam, for others I simply experiment until I am happy that the end result matches the memory. As my mam was not a professional baker either she may, like me, not always have done things in the correct manner. If it would please you I can change the title of the post to simply read 'Brack'. It is not my intention to mislead or misguide people, I am simply relaying cakes and other items as I remember them from my mam's kitchen.
If you would like to send me on a recipe and some information about Barm brack I would be happy to post it this year at Halloween and credit you as the source of the information.