IRISH BARMBRACK

MAKES: 1, 9 X 5-INCH LOAF

INGREDIENTS FOR THE WHISKEY-SOAKED FRUIT

• 1 1⁄2 cups hot water steeped with 2 teabags of good Irish black tea
• 1⁄2 cup Irish whiskey
• 1⁄2 cup golden raisins, snipped or chopped in half
• 1⁄2 cup Thompson seedless (black) raisins, snipped or chopped in half
• 1⁄2 cup your choice of chopped dried cherries, dried cranberries, dried apricots, or dried pineapple, or a mixtureof all of the above
• 1 Tbsp chopped citron OR 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

FOR THE BREAD DOUGH

• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup milk warmed but not hot
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups bread flour, plus 1⁄4 cup more for dusting work surface
• 1⁄2 tsp salt
• 1⁄4 cup superfine (caster) sugar
• 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1⁄4 tsp ground clove
• 1⁄4 tsp ground mace
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus
• 1 Tbsp for greasing the loaf pan
• 2 cups soused fruit from above

With St. Patrick’s Day coming up this month, it’s the perfect time to bake this beautiful barm- brack (bairin breac or “speckled loaf ” in Gaelic) a fragrant Irish bread studded with whiskey- and-tea-soaked dried fruit. Although many of the barmbrack recipes circulating out there today are actually cakes (like date or banana breads) barmbrack was originally a yeasted bread. Our recipe sticks with that tradition and yields a fragrant, lightly sweet bread that’s very good eaten right out of the oven or toasted the next day and spread with plenty of Irish butter.

Interestingly, like Mardi Gras king cakes which come with good luck tokens hidden inside (coins, rings, plastic baby figurines), Irish barmbrack is also often baked with trinkets in it that follow Druidic fortune-telling tradi- tions—coins for good fortune, thimbles predicting spinster or bachelorhood, beans portending poverty etc. We’ve kept our recipe trinket-free, figuring that the whiskey-soaked fruit is treasure enough.

INSTRUCTIONS

SOAK DRIED FRUIT Combine black tea with whisky in a medium bowl. Add all of the dried fruit and soak for 6 hours, or, overnight. Drain and squeeze liquid from soaked fruit and either dis- card liquid, or save it for another use (it’s delicious!) Set soaked fruit aside while you make the dough.

MAKE DOUGH Warm milk until quite warm but not hot and whisk with yeast in a small bowl. Place bowl in a warm spot to allow yeast to bloom. Once bloomed (takes about 10 minutes) whisk egg into the yeast/milk mixture. Set aside.

Whisk flour, superfine sugar, salt, and spice together. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, add flour mixture plus butter and beat to incorporate the butter. Add reserved yeast/egg/milk mixture to the dry ingredients and continue beating until dough gathers up.

Remove ball of dough from bowl and place on floured work surface. Using your hands, smush the drained fruit into the dough ball and knead. Add a little more flour to work surface as needed until you have worked the dough into a smooth ball with the fruit studded throughout. Shape into a log. Grease the sides and bottom of the loaf pan with butter. Press dough into loaf pan and level. Loosely cover pan with greased plastic wrap. Place a clean kitchen towel over the top. Set loaf pan in a warm place. Allow dough to rise for about 2 hours or until nicely domed above the top over the loaf pan. With oven rack in center position, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake bread for 45 to 50 minutes until bread is deeply brown and sounds hollow when sharply tapped. Remove bread to a cooling rack to cool slightly. Slice and serve while warm, or toast the bread the next day and serve spread with Irish butter.