A very important aim, before we get our holiday cottages up and running, is to find and perfect the best Bara Brith recipe. Ok, yes we also need to renovate them fully, but this is a minor detail. Settling on a cake recipe is MUCH more important right now, in my mind. If you are coming for a holiday in rural Wales, I can't think of anything better than to be welcomed into your cottage with a freshly-baked loaf of bara brith still warm from the Aga, some salted butter to spread on it, and a pot of tea.
Bara brith (meaning speckled bread, in Welsh) is a traditional fruit tea-loaf. The main thing that sets it aside from other fruit cakes is that make it with raisins that are soaked in tea overnight. This makes them plump, juicy and gives bara brith its unique flavour. Its a staple in cafes, bakeries and tea shops across Wales, along with the ubiquitous "welsh cakes" (which are like little griddle drop scones, again served with butter). It tastes rather similar to an old family recipe of my mum's, known as "Emergency Cake", due to its ability to improve the majority of common family "emergency" situations (getting lost on walks, cut knees, the guinea pig running away again, the car breaking down on the way for a day trip to the beach, etc.). A good, old-fashioned, comforting lump of cake.
After much trial and error, I have finally found my favourite bara brith recipe. Many recipes on the internet are very similar - this one was a mixture of many different recipes, tweaked and twiddled until it didn't quite match any of them (but most similar to "Mamgu's Bara Brith" recipe, found on BBC Good Food). I am happy with it! Its moist, soft, slightly springy, and with a delicious crisp top when fresh out the oven. If you are feeling fancy, try soaking the raisins in Earl Grey for a fragrant, grown-up bara brith. Furthermore, the recipe has no butter in it, so you are fully entitled to spread an embarrassingly thick layer of butter on top when you serve it, to make up for this omission! Find the recipe at the bottom of this post.
The photos below are of a recent attempt, although this one had come through several challenges and mishaps...firstly, there is currently inexplicably a severe flour shortage, as everyone decides that cake-baking is the only way to cope with lockdown (I must agree with them here). So I had to cobble together my dwindling supplies for this bara brith, which ended up having some plain white flour in it and rather too much wholemeal flour to make up the weight, with a bit of baking powder chucked in too. Secondly, I made it with Willow, which involved unknown quantities of each ingredient eaten/dropped on the floor/ eaten by the dog. So what made it into the bowl was rather less precisely measured than probably needed. I think this might be something to do with why it sunk a little in the middle this time. Finally, once I had wrestled the toddler into bed for her nap and sat through a Teams meeting with work, I had completely forgotten about said bara brith. I only remembered it three hours later! But here is a marvellous thing about an Aga...as we had it on low, it was entirely unscathed - in fact, it was pretty delicious as the top was a little more crispy than usual.
Here it is - forgive the slight sinking in the middle - I blame Willow!
My favourite doggy apron in the background!
The Old Sheep Farm Bara Brith
Ingredients:
Strong black tea, 350ml
Mixed fruit, 300g (I used raisins, a handful of chopped apricots and dried cranberries here)
Brown sugar, 170g
Self-raising white flour, 180g
Self-raising wholemeal flour, 50g
1 egg
Ground spices (cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg as you prefer!), 2 tsp
Method:
Soak the fruit in tea overnight, until they are plump and delicious. The next day, stir the sugar into the fruit until it is dissolved. Beat in the egg. Mix together the flours and spices, and sift. Fold it into the mixture carefully. Pour into a 2lb loaf tin, buttered and lined.
For the Aga folk - bake for a longish while in a coolish oven (I know you disregard precise baking times and temperatures!). I would put it in the simmering oven for several hours, or the baking oven for less time but using the cold plain shelf towards the end of baking to avoid the top getting too brown. For folk with a conventional oven, bake at 160 degrees celsius for approximately an hour, but check how it is getting on, and cover it with foil if it is getting too brown on top before it is cooked through.
Cool for a few minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack. Slather with salted butter and gobble to your heart's content, with a "panad o de" (mug of tea). Be sure to run to fetch it if any minor emergency befalls you during the course of the day.
Comments