BARMBRACK
Barmbrack is a deliciously moist fruit cake that surprisingly has no butter — making it a health food, in my humble opinion. Yes, you heard me right, a health food. I should caveat; however, that this is only the case, if you don’t apply the thick layer of butter when serving… and to be honest, it is best served with a liberal layer of butter, sometimes so liberal, you can’t even see the cake for all the butter… And, I should mention, it does have some sugar… and a splash of whiskey. So, ok, it’s not a health food. But it is so good, that I just don’t want to hear of any excuse for why you haven’t made it. And honestly, as far as cakes go, it is probably one of the healthier ones to eat!
The first time I had barmbrack was when I was in Galway for Halloween a few years ago. We were visiting some family friends, who had just prepared the most amazing roast beef I had ever had in my life. I still fantasize about it to this day. Anyway, after that delightful roast, we had a pot of tea and some slices of barmbrack smothered in butter. It was the PERFECT ending to a perfect meal.
Now, barmbrack is not like your usual fruit cake, which is often dry and studded with overly sweet, chewy, dried fruits and dry, mixed peel. Instead, barmbrack has a voluptuously rounded, fruity flavour, with a hint of booze, and the addition of mixed spice provides echoes of Christmas and gingerbread that isn’t overpowering, but on a par with hot cross buns. It can be eaten all the year round, but is more traditionally eaten for Halloween, where trinkets, holding some sort of fortune-telling significance, are baked inside. Whoever, manages to uncover a trinket in their slice of barmbrack can look forward to whatever it symbolizes, for instance a coin symbolizes wealth and a ring, marriage, etcetera, etcetera.
At the time, I don’t think the barmbrack we had back in Galway was laced with trinkets, because my resounding memory of that first slice was how moist and melting it was in my mouth, even though it was a fruit cake. And I think the trick to ensuring that moistness, despite the lack of butter, is making sure that you soak the dried fruits overnight in a mixture of whiskey and black tea. I also recommend making the fruit mix yourself as opposed to relying on shop-bought, so that you can be sure than you haven’t ended up with a mix predominantly made up of seriously dried-up brown sultanas, or, God-only-knows-when-they-were-chopped chunks of dried apricot. Here, I have added dates and prunes, which provide a rich sticky, caramelized depth, and also cranberries, which give a very, fruity, fresh chew, which you just won’t get from sticking to shop-bought.
Now, please, note that this recipe makes only one loaf, and maybe, to begin with, you should start with just the one. But, if you, like me, enjoy a cuppa tea, you may want to stock up on the dried fruits and instead make two at a time, because, trust me, this barmbrack will disappear quick!
Ingredients
Fruit soak
58g pitted chopped dates
37g chopped prunes
90g cranberries
100g white sultanas
100g brown sultanas
50ml whiskey Hennesey is the best!
250ml cold black tea
cake
225g plain white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
125mg soft light brown sugar
½ teaspoon mixed spice
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1 large egg
Method
1. Put on the kettle and make 250ml of black tea. After 5 minutes of letting the tea bag steep in the water, remove and leave the tea to cool to lukewarm or room temperature. (Make yourself a cuppa too!)
2. Measure out and chop all your dried fruits for the fruit soak making sure you remove any pits. Mix them up in measuring jug or bowl and add the cooled tea and whiskey. Give it a good stir, cover and leave to sit at room temperature overnight.
3. The next day, preheat your oven to 150°C.
4. The dried fruits should have absorbed all if not most of the liquid and be plump.
5. Strain the soaked fruits and COLLECT all the unabsorbed liquid. Press down on the dried fruits so that you collect about 110ml of liquid from the fruits. Save this liquid!
6. Butter a loaf tin (23 x 12.5 x 6.5 cm) and line with greaseproof paper. One piece on the bottom and one strip to go around the sides of the tin.
7. In a large bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and mixed spice together and then whisk in the sugar, until mixed well. Try to break up as many of the clumps of sugar as possible. You may need to rub them with your fingers.
8. In a small bowl, whisk up the egg together with 75ml of the soaking liquid with a fork. Make a well in the middle of the dry flour mixture and gradually add the whisked-up egg and soaking liquid, pulling in the surrounding dry ingredients as you go.
9. Once incorporated, keep adding more of the remaining soaking liquid until you have a sticky wet dough.
10. Spread out the sticky dough on the bottom of your mixing bowl and add one quarter of the soaked fruits folding them in carefully. Keep spreading out the dough and adding the soaked fruits one quarter at a time, to ensure all the soaked fruits are evenly incorporated. You don’t want any massive clumps of soaked fruit in the mixture.
11. Transfer the dough to the prepared loaf tin, smooth out the top and place it in the middle of the oven for about 60 to 75 minutes. Check on the loaf after 50 minutes to see how it’s doing.
12. To check if it’s done, slide a skewer into the thickest part of the loaf and if, when you remove it, the skewer comes away clean with no wet dough stuck to it, then the loaf is fully cooked.
13. If you can resist it, once cool, wrap it up in cling film and let it “mature” for 24–48 hours, before tucking in…
…but, in our house, I don’t think barmbrack has ever lasted more than a few hours, before it was sliced, smothered in butter and devoured with hot gulps of tea.
So ENJOY!
