Traditional Bara Brith, which translates as Speckled Bread, is a sweetened loaf of bread cooked with delicious spices and loaded with dried vine fruits. When people made their own bread, they would hold a piece of dough back to which they would add sugar, spice and fruit to turn the simple loaf into a wonderful and luxurious treat.

Few people regularly make their own bread these days so the tradition of using dough to make this gorgeous treat is dying somewhat. Making Bara Brith however, is alive and well in the form of a cake. If you would prefer to make the cake version, please see the recipe here.

**This Bara Brith is more of a fruit cake.**

Delicious served fresh with salted butter, I also love Bara Brith, either fresh or toasted, with cheese. Andrew enjoys it with Chicken Liver Parfait, or if he is being really fancy pants, some foie gras.

How to make Traditional Bara Brith

Collect all your ingredients together:

strong white flour
easy bake dried yeast
fine salt
very soft butter
luke-warm water
soft brown sugar
mixed dried fruit

Topping:

runny honey

How the make this loaf:

Put the flour, yeast, sugar, spice and salt into the bowl of a freestanding mixer. Stir to mix.
Add the soft butter. Mix on speed 2 with a dough hook whilst you pour the warm water in from the side. Mix for 3 – 4 minutes until the dough comes together. Check the texture of the dough. If it feels dry, add a little more water. Alternatively, you can knead by hand on a floured work surface.
When you are happy with the consistency of the dough, mix using the dough hook for a further 4 minutes on speed 2, or until the dough comes away from the side of the bowl. Alternatively, you can knead by hand on a floured work surface.
Tip into a lightly greased bowl and cover. Wash the bowl and dough hook from the mixer.
Leave to rise until doubled in size. This normally takes between 1- 2 hours depending on how warm it is. If the room temperature is cold, I put mine in the oven set on dough setting at 42°C and it takes around 2 hours.
When it has doubled in size, knock the dough back with your hand and then remove the dough from the bowl and put it back into the freestanding mixing bowl.
Continuing with the dough hook, mix on speed 1 to knock the air out of the dough and then put the speed up to 2 and mix for 1 minute. Add the dried fruit and mix for a further minute.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface, quickly knead and divide into 3 equal parts.
Using your hands or a rolling pin, roll each piece into a rectangle. Roll up from the shorter end to create a loaf shape. Pop into the prepared loaf tins.
Loosely cover with cling film. Leave to rise until doubled in size. This normally takes around an hour. If the room temperature is cold, I put mine in the oven set on dough setting at 42°C.
When the dough is ready, remove the cling film and cook in the centre of a pre-heated oven.
Cook for 40 minutes or until the loaf is golden. Cover with kitchen foil for the last 5 – 10 minutes if it is browning too quickly.
Leave in the baking tins for few minutes and then remove onto a wire rack.

Made this recipe?

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