St David's Day Recipe - Bara Brith

by Andrew Barrow, Posted Mar 1st 2006 @ 2:23PM

March 1st is St. David's Day - patron saint of all things Welsh. He was a 2nd century monk who founded the Abbey at St. David's in Pembrokeshire and followed very strict and austere rules. There is a tale that he led the Welsh to victory against the Saxon's wearing a leek (hence one of the country's emblems).

I found an old recipe for Bara Brith basically it is speckled bread.

Bara Brith/Speckled Bread

75g currants
75g sultanas
75g butter
25g crystallised peel
2 eggs beaten
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
75g brown sugar
350g self-raising flour sifted
warmed honey to glaze

Now the currants I brought (a mix of black and yellow, I didn't bother with sultanas) seemed plump enough but the dried ones are supposed to be simmered in water for 15 minutes; then drained well. They are mixed with the butter and peel, the eggs, spice and sugar. The flour is stirred in and mixed.

Bake in a loaf tin (1kg) for an hour.

Now before you all rush off and make this there is a problem! While this tastes delicious I think there is a missing 'wet' ingredient. As I was mixing everything I thought the mix was a little dry - very dry actually - I wonder if some water should have been added. The final bread didn't rise at all and was very, very crumbly. This recipe for example adds a half pint of tea. I would have remade it but had purchased only enough fruit for one attempt!

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Tags: baking, baking recipe, BakingRecipe, bara brith, BaraBrith, british isles, food and drink, FoodAndDrink, speckled bread, SpeckledBread