The history of Barmbrack and an easy recipe for Halloween

Eva Osborne

It is time for Barmbrack to grace bread bins and cupboards across the country yet again, and like Halloween itself, the cake has roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.

The fortune-telling fruitcake and Irish Halloween staple is toasted and served with butter melted in with tea to wash it down.

Barmbrack (bairín breac in Irish) roughly translates as "speckled bread", and certain items are added to the dough before cooking.

These are: a coin, a piece of cloth, a stick, a ring, and a pea.

Each object has different implications for you for the coming year.

According to My Irish Jeweler, finding the coin means you will enjoy good fortune in the coming year.

Whoever finds the rag will have ill fortune, the pea means you will not marry in the coming year, and the stick means your love life will be filled with strife for the next 12 months.

Finally, finding the silver ring means you will be wed before the year is out.

Recipe

Irish television personality and food writer, Donal Skehan, has a tasty and simple recipe for barmbrack that you can make at home.

Things you will need: a 900g loaf tin, a large mixing bowl, a ring (and a coin, a piece of cloth, a stick, and a pea if you want to go all out!).

Ingredients:

• 225g plain flour;
• 2 tsps of baking powder;
• 375g packet of fruit mix;
• 250ml cold tea;
• 50ml of whiskey;
• 125g light brown sugar;
• 1 large eggs;
• 1/2 tsp of mixed spice;
• The ring to place inside.

Method:

1. Place the fruit mix in a bowl and pour over the whiskey and cold tea. Allow to soak up the liquid overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 170˚C/327°/Gas Mark 3 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and mixed spice in a mixing bowl. Make a well and break in the egg, using a wooden spoon, mix the egg with the dry ingredients. Add a little bit of the liquid the fruit mix is sitting in and mix it through. You may not need all the liquid; you are looking for a wet dough. Then stir through the fruit mix until everything is thoroughly combined.
3. Add in the ring and stir through. Spoon the wet dough into the lined loaf tin and place in the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before removing from the loaf tin and placing on wire rack.
4. Cover in cling wrap and tin foil and allow to sit for 1-2 days before cutting into it. Serve in slices spread with a little butter and good cuppa!

Skehan said soaking the barmbrack overnight in the tea and whiskey results in plump fruit pumped with flavour.