Top 8: Frightfully good barmbracks for a traditional Irish Halloween

"Barmbrack (bairm breac in Irish) contains dried fruit that adds speckles (breac). There is usually yeast instead of the original fermenting malt (bairm), which lightens the bread enriched with butter or less traditional oils."

Sliced Irish fruit loaf with sultanas and cherries isolated on white

Expect to see plenty of enthusiastic black-hatted, skeleton and cobweb-chested young people outside your door on October 31 looking for goodies. 

What you give to callers is up to you, but a basket of goodies can be offered, including fresh fruit and nuts, small bags of popcorn, and ideally good quality chocolate mini bars – Moser Roth boxes of five bars from Aldi fit the bill. You may be left with the fruit, but it’s worth a try.