Bara Brith
Hello,
Awhile ago I'd found elra's post on wildyeastblog.com about Bara Brith [1] - I've been wanting to try making this lovely-sounding fruit-and-spice Welsh 'speckled' bread ever since.
I've got Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery on loan from the libary; there's a recipe for Bara Brith in her book too.
This is my variation of Bara Brith, based on elra's and Elizabeth's.
I was delighted with the light, cakey, tender and flavorful! result:
Both loaves, and a crumb shot (top slice separated upon slicing...couldn't wait until it was completely cool to slice and taste!):
Ingredients (for 2 x 450g loaves) |
Weight in grams |
Baker's % |
|
|
|
Bread flour |
335 |
83% |
Red Fife 75% whole wheat flour |
67 |
17% |
Milk |
202 |
50.2% |
Eggs, whole (= 1 large egg) |
53 |
13.2% |
Yeast instant, osmotolerant |
9 |
2.2% |
Sugar, demerara |
58 |
14.4% |
Salt |
6 |
1.5% |
Unsalted butter, 70F |
64 |
15.9% |
Currants |
26 |
6.5% |
Raisins, dark |
26 |
6.5% |
Raisins, golden |
26 |
6.5% |
Orange peel, candied, diced |
26 |
6.5% |
Sweet spice blend |
2 |
0.5% |
|
|
|
Total |
900 |
224% |
(1) Soak currants and raisins overnight in strong, cold tea. |
(2) The next day, bring milk, egg, and butter to room temperature. Drain the currants and raisins. Add diced candied orange peel to currants and raisins. |
(3) Mix together sweet spices to your liking, to equal 2 grams. I used .7 g freshly grated nutmeg, .7 g allspice, and .2 g each of cinnamon, cloves and ginger. |
(4) Whisk milk, egg and salt together to combine, in bowl. |
(5) Blend flours, yeast and sugar in a larger, mixing bowl. |
(6) Add milk and egg mixture to flour mixture and stir to combine. I used a dough whisk to combine the ingredients. |
(7) Kneaded on the counter until the dough windowpaned (improved mix). |
(8) Kneaded in the spices, and then the butter in five additions, ensuring each addition of butter was kneaded in before adding the next. I tried to make sure the butter stayed inside the dough, so I wasn't touching/melting the butter with my hands while kneading. The dough became sticky as I was kneading in the butter. I dusted the counter lightly once or twice with flour and used a dough scraper to pick the dough up off the counter, as needed. |
(9) Gradually knead in the fruit mixture until fruit is incorporated. I tried to keep the fruit within the dough and not have any pieces sticking out. |
(10) Bulk ferment at 80F for two hours, with S&F at one hour. |
(11) Shape, preheat oven & stone to 425F, proof for about 45 minutes to one hour at room temperature (70F). |
(12) Score, bake with steam, 400 for 10 minutes, 375 for remainder of bake (30 minutes total). After 20 minutes of baking, I rotated the loaves and covered with foil to prevent overbrowning. Let cool on rack before slicing. |
I'm very happy to have discovered this bread!
Happy baking everyone,
from breadsong