Culinary Travel: An Éire Halloween Tradition

Halloween isn’t your typical celebration. And Irish Halloween food isn’t exactly ‘normal’ either. We owe a great deal of our Halloween traditions to Ireland. This is the autumn festival when, as once believed, the ghosts of the dead returned to the land of the living. Spooky. Really, though, that’s why we like Halloween. It’s scary, it’s unpredictable and it’s a little bit weird. Not to mention it is full of fun for all ages.

Barmbrack

Caution is required at this time of year when biting into a slice of warm barmbrack.

This traditional Halloween bread/cake could contain any number of items that were meant to tell the future of the person lucky (or unlucky) enough to find something in their slice.

Within your slice of brack you may find: a ring (married in a year); a stick (a walking stick indicating future travels); a thimble (a spinster forever); a button (a bachelor forever); a coin (a lifetime of wealth); and a piece of cloth (a lifetime of poverty). Religious medals could also be found in bracks, predicting a life in the Holy Orders.

Ingredients 

For The Fruit Mix:
1½ cups raisins
¼ cup Bushmills whiskey
Warm tea (enough to cover the raisins)
1 Lemon, juice and zested skin

For The Dough:
2 cups strong bread flour
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoon dried yeast
9.5 ounces milk, at room temperature
3½ tablespoon butter, softened
3 ½ tablespoon sugar
1 egg beaten

For The Topping:
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground mixed spice

Directions:

Soak the raisins in the whiskey, warm tea and lemon juice for 30-45 minutes, then drain off the liquid.

To make the dough: put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and bring together with a wooden spoon.

Knead on a floured surface with your hands for 5 minutes.

Put the dough in a bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave for about 1 hour, until the mixture has risen and fills the bowl.

Knead dough again on a floured surface, adding soaked fruit until evenly spread throughout.
Place in a 7 - 9 in. buttered cake tin and cover with a damp tea towel.

Leave in a warm place for about 20 minutes until the mixture rises up to the top of the tin.

Bake for 50 minutes in oven preheated to 392 degrees Fahrenheit

For the topping: cream the butter and spices together until soft.

Remove the barmbrack from the oven. Immediately spread spiced butter on top. Leave to cool. 

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Rawhide Travel and Tours Inc.
6008 West Bell Rd # F105
Glendale, Arizona  85308-3793
(602) 843-5100
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