Michelle Darmody: How to bake a spooky Halloween brack

To decorate your brack into a spooky face make the most of any cracks and fill them with white sprinkles as teeth and ghoulish jelly eyes.

You can also freeze slices of the brack and toast from frozen, or allow it to defrost to room temperature.

Brack can be made in advance, and is nice to prepare in the run up to Oíche Shamhna. It can be eaten either warm or cold with a generous spread of soft butter. I love toasting a slice, as the spices come back alive and the salty butter melts between the sweet fruit and the crispy, dark, toasted crust.

You can add the traditional Halloween charms to your bake if you wish. The charms were said to allow you to peer into the future, to tell your fortune for the year ahead.

If you found a charm in your slice, your faith was set: a ring for marriage, a rag for poverty, a coin for wealth.

The name barmbrack comes from báirín breac, or speckled loaf, a nod to the dotted fruit within.

You can make a brack with yeast or without. I have gone for a non-yeast recipe here; it is easier to make and needs very little equipment. I use a stout to soak the fruit which gives a deep malty flavour and a darker hint to the cake.

You can replace this with whiskey, if you like.

Make the tea very strong to get a nice deep flavour. Whether you use whiskey or stout the alcohol evaporates as the brack bakes, leaving just a hint of flavour.

The batter should be sticky, wet and a dark glossy colour.

There should be no pockets of dry ingredients. There is always a fine line between trying not to overmix the batter, resulting in a tough bake, and leaving it undermixed.

The batter should hold its shape somewhat when scooped into the tin and not be completely fluid.

To stop the top of the brack from cracking, cut a shallow dip down the centre of the batter before placing it in the oven, or you can embrace the crack and make it into a spooky face.

If the crust is browning too much towards the end of baking, but a cake skewer is still not coming out clean, cover the brack with tin foil and bake again for five-minute increments before repeating the test with the skewer.

The brack will keep for over a week in an airtight container in a cool place, in fact it can taste better after a day or so when the flavours blend.

Spooky Brack

recipe by:Darina Allen

This recipe makes 10 slices

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 20 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 35 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 300ml warm tea

• 2 tbsp stout

• 150g raisins

• 150g currants

• 150 golden raisins

• 25g mixed peel

• 140g muscovado sugar

• 200g self-raising flour

• 2 tsp mixed cake spice

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 egg, lightly whisked

• 1 tbsp buttermilk

• 1 tbsp honey

•  

Method

1. Spooky candy eyes and white sprinkles to decorate

2. Mix the tea and stout together and pour the mixture over the dried fruit and mixed peel.

3. Leave to soak overnight until the fruit swells up.

4. Line a 2 #lb loaf tin with parchment.

5. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

6. Mix the dry ingredients together and make a well in the centre.

7. Whisk the eggs and buttermilk, then pour into the well in the flour and mix everything together.

8.  Stir the fruit and the liquid into the mixture.

9. Scoop the batter into the loaf tin.

10. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for an hour and twenty minutes until it is baked through.

11. Brush the top of the brack with the honey when it is still warm.

12. Allow to cool in the tin for ten minutes or so, then place onto a wire rack to cool completely.

13. To decorate, you can add spooky eyes and a line of teeth in any of the cracks that appear on the surface, or you can cut a slit if you have no cracks.

Three delicious variations

Walnut and whiskey brack

For this version, omit the chopped peel and add 100g of roughly chopped walnuts to the batter. The whiskey can be added in place of the stout. Walnuts have a bitterness that is a nice contrast to all of the sweet dried fruit.

Apple and ginger brack

Adding roughly grated cooking apple to the brack, as well some chopped crystallised ginger, and the zest of an orange gives quite a different result. I use about 80g of grated apple and one piece of the ginger, finely sliced as well as the zest of an orange.

Stir all of these in before scooping your batter into the tin. I also think whisky or brandy is best in this version rather than the stout.

Pecan, nutmeg and date brack

Omit the peel and add 100g of chopped dates to the dried fruit before they soak. Add 1 tsp of ground nutmeg and 1 tsp of vanilla in place of the cinnamon, and 100g of chopped pecan nuts to the batter before scooping it into the tin.