Barmbrack
An Irish tea loaf, especially associated with Halloween: charms baked inside once foretold your fortune (a ring meant marriage, a coin meant wealth). The tea-soaked fruit gives it a deep, dark sweetness.
Ingredients
400 g mixed dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, currants)
300 ml hot strong black tea
150 g soft brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
300 g self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tbsp orange marmalade
Method
- 1
Soak the dried fruit in the hot tea with the sugar. Cover and leave overnight (or at least 6 hours).
- 2
Heat the oven to 160°C. Butter and line a 900 g loaf tin.
- 3
Stir the beaten egg and marmalade into the soaked fruit, then fold in the flour and mixed spice.
- 4
Spoon into the tin and level. Bake for 55–65 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
- 5
Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Slice thickly and butter generously; keeps for a week wrapped in greaseproof.
Cook's notes
Traditionally a wedding ring, a coin and a pea were baked inside — finder of the ring marries within the year.