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- 1 Tablespoon warm water
- 1 teaspoon dried yeast (half a packet)
- ⅔ cup milk
- 2½ cups unbleached flour
- ½ cup wholewheat flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 Tablespoons butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup currants
- ½ cup raisins
- 6 dried apricots, sliced very very thin
- dash cinnamon, clove, allspice, and 2 dashes of nutmeg
Special equipment
- 1½ or 2 quart loaf pan
foil
Method
- Dissolve yeast in the water. Warm the milk and stir it into the yeast. Measure the flours and salt into a medium mixing bowl, and stir in the yeast-milk while you melt the butter. Pour in the butter and mix to a soft dough. Cover and let rise till doubled (about 45 minutes...if you prewarmed your flours; about an hour and a half if you have not). Work the dried fruit, sugar and spice into the dough. Put into a warmed and greased 1½ or 2 quart loaf pan. Pat into shape and cover, leaving it in a warm place until it rises to the top of the tin (1½ to 2 hours). Cover with foil as it browns very easily and bake at 400° for 25 to 30 minutes.
Notes
- Bara Brith (’speckled bread‘) is the famous Cymric fruitbread. Every family’s is different: some make theirs extra rich by adding an egg or two; others make theirs sweeter; some soak their dried fruits overnight in cold tea. Commercial establishments often use soda instead of yeast as their leavener. Our recipe is a personal customization of David’s that we’ve developed over the years. She, in turn, based hers on a recipe from a 1953 Welsh Gas Board pamphlet. You also might want to examine her chapter on British spiced fruit breads where she offers English, Irish, and other regional variations.
Suggestions
- We serve it with honeybutter at formal events (spiced honeybutter, anyone?), but at home we eat it plain. Moist and sweet, it really needs no topping.
