Last Updated on December 23, 2019 by Chef Mireille
Welsh Bara Brith
A traditional sweet bread for tea time and breakfast in Wales and throughout the UK. Enriched with tea soaked fruit, it is perfect for tea time.
This is a common breakfast fruitcake in Wales and often served at tea time throughout the UK. What scones are to Scotland, Bara Brith is to the Welsh with every family having their own recipe. There are two versions of Bara Brith. Traditionally, bara brith was a yeast bread with dried fruit. However, many modern versions of bara brith have now transformed it to a tea cake,made with self rising flour.
Bara Brith is also common in Argentina, known there as Torta Negra (Black Cake). It was brought there by Welsh settlers who arrived in 1865 to Chubot. Chubot Province, located in southern Argentina, still has the largest percentage of Welsh Argentines, with approximately 25,000 Welsh speakers.
Translated literally as speckled bread, the large grain sugar crystals give it the speckled look. I used Sugar in the Raw/Demarara, however using crushed sugar cubes would create an even better speckled effect.
..and if you prefer savory for breakfast, try Welsh Glamorgan Vegetaarian Sausages!
Sweet or savory, I think I will be loving the Welsh breakfasts when I get the opportunity to visit Wales!
The key to delicious Welsh Bara Brith is soak the fruit overnight in good strong black tea!
IN THE MAKING – HOW TO MAKE WELSH BARA BRITH
Welsh Bara Brith
Ingredients
- 14 oz. mixed dried fruit I used apricots, dates and currants, quartering the dates and apricots
- 2 1/2 cups of strong black tea I used 2 tablespoons Ceylon steeped for 7 minutes
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 2 heaped tablespoons orange marmalade use British marmalade which is bitter; not sweet like American marmalade
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups self rising flour
- 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 4 tablespoons milk
- 1/4 cup Sugar in the Raw coarse demarara/turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Soak fruit (including cranberries) in tea overnight.
- Grease a loaf pan. Preheat oven to 325 F.
- Melt butter and marmalade in a saucepan. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Add the butter-marmalade and mix well.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and spices. Add marmalade combo and mix well.
- Drain tea from the fruit. Add fruit and milk to the flour and mix well.
- Spoon into prepared pan and level off the top.
- Sprinkle the raw sugar or crushed sugar cubes on top. (don’t be concerned about this amount of sugar topping as the batter is not very sweet itself, therefore even with this sugar topping, the end result does not give you a very sweet product)
- Bake for 1 1/4 hours until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let cool completely before slicing.
Nutrition
Logo courtesy : Preeti
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32
DO YOU YUM? SAVE IT BELOW!
YumDon’t forget to visit the RECIPE INDEX with over 1000 recipes from around the world including lots of Vegetarian Recipes and Gluten Free Recipes!
This post may include affiliate links.
very new bread to me 🙂 Very interesting and looks fabulous !!
I have flipped for this fruit cake.love the use of orange marmalade. .it will make it so so delicious. .the tea and sugar.wow..this one is a stunning one and a must try Mireille and I am loving it.
that is new to me!! looks very elegant and delicious!! slurp!!
Sowmya
Omg, love that dark deep colour of the bread, very fruity and incredible welsh bara brith..
Love the colour, the flavour and everything about this speckled bread!!
what a beautiful looking cake….never heard of this one, loved the texture and color both
I like this dense fruit cake, the only thing I don't like about making them is the long baking time.
The cake looks beautiful, Mireille…
Love the dense fruit cake. Wonderful bake, Mir.
looking very tempting n delicious….Excellent pictures as well.
Bread look so moist and tempting
Bread looks so soft and delicious ! Wonderful creation Mir !
Wow, so many different and delicious dishes from all over the world Mir.. Great job — you should be in some Food Research job 🙂
Love the name of this bread — very rhythemic.
This one is for keeps. I have tasted this once in 1974 when we had a British couple as our neighbour. It is a great tea cake. Your golden goodness looks scrumptious.
Loving this. dry fruits and tea yields such a great color!
Tea, marmalade and dried fruits result in one yummy rae cake that needs to be bookmarked. I have seen quite few cakes using tea but this one has really pipped my interest. Thanks Mir.
That is a beautiful cake. Drooling here:-)