Speckled Bread for St. David's Day
Bara Brith and memories of a kind man named Taffy.
St. David’s Day is March 1 and celebrates Wales’ patron saint, so, while I am working on a fresh, new post for this week all about cream cheese (!), I wanted to re-share my recipe for bara brith, a favorite Welsh tea cake of mine Bara brith means ‘speckled bread,’ as the dense, rich bread is dotted with tea-soaked raisins.
There was a sweet Welshman named Taffy who worked at Selwyn College when I was a student there. Taffy made a point to find me on my first St. David’s Day at college. He handed me a slice of his wife’s bara brith, wrapped in a white paper napkin, in the hopes of educating an American to the better things in life, ie, all things Welsh. I’ve loved it ever since.
The recipe below is adapted from a BBC Good Food recipe, because I didn’t have the good sense at 19 to ask Taffy for his wife’s recipe.
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! Happy St. David’s Day.
Bara Brith
Head’s up: you must soak the fruit for 8 hours before making the cake
This recipe makes one large, dense loaf. You can split this dough into two pans, if you feel like sharing. Just alter cooking times accordingly.
What You’ll Need:
14 ounces (2 ½ cups) dried fruit (Any combination of raisins, currants or dried cranberries)
12 ounces (1 ½ cups) brewed, strong black tea
4 ounces (113 grams) butter
2 tablespoons orange marmalade or apricot jam
2 large eggs
10 ounces (2 1/3 cups) whole wheat flour
6 ounces (1 1/3 cups) Â all-purpose white flour *
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
6 ounces (3/4 cup) light brown sugar
1 generous teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 generous teaspoon ground ginger
½ cup milk (generous 4 ounces), plus more as needed.
Cinnamon sugar for topping
What You’ll Do:
1.    In a small bowl or measuring cup, pour the tea over the dried fruit. Cover and let sit for at least 8 hours until the fruits are plump. When ready to bake, drain the fruit and pat them dry.
2.    When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a loaf tin with butter or spray with a product like Baker’s Joy.
3.    In a small saucepan, melt the butter and marmalade over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.
4.    While the butter is cooling, in a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger.
5.    Pour the melted butter/marmalade over the flour mixture. Add the eggs and milk and stir until blended. If the mixture appears dry, add milk 2 tablespoons at a time until you achieve a soft batter. The batter is ready when it amiably blops off of the spoon. Fold in the dried fruits.
2.    Scrape the batter into the prepared tin, smooth the top and then generously sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over the batter. This is no place to skimp. You will be happy you have the sugary crusted top later.
3.    Bake for 60 to 75 minutes. The cake is ready when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
4.    Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn it onto a cooling rack.
5.    It’s best served warm with cold butter. It’s delicious toasted, too. No surprise there.
*You need one pound of flour in total. I opted for more whole wheat than white for flavor. Use any combination you see fit. Please note that you may have to add more milk depending on which flours you use.Â
*Taffy is usually a nickname for Dafydd, or David, but also sometimes a nasty nickname given by Englishmen to Welshmen. In the case of this Taffy Jones, he was proud of his pure Welsh name.
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Did I miss the 'What you do' with the tea soaked dried fruit ? *edit in > Clyde is gorgeous !
Made it this morning. Took longer to cook than suggested (maybe I added too much milk . . . though it seemed to need it), but it is absolutely delicious! Will make this again. Also, it's huge. I think I would split into 2 loaves next time.