This traditional Irish Barmbrack is destined to become a family favorite. Sliced, toasted and buttered, it is the ULTIMATE cinnamon raisin bread!
Cinnamon raisin bread fans, get ready for the ultimate version of it!
Barmbrack, also known as Barm Brack, is known in Gaelic as báirín breac, meaning “speckled loaf” because of the raisins. It shares a similar etymology to Welsh bara brith (recipe coming soon!).
This traditional Irish sweetened bread is enjoyed all year round in Ireland but is particularly popular during Halloween where it’s accompanied by the tradition of hiding various items inside the loaf, each with its own significance. If you found a ring you were destined to marry within a year (that’s assuming the person is single – we can only hope or things could get really complicated); a pea meant you’d remain single; a stick meant you were doomed to an unhappy marriage (I don’t like the direction this is going); cloth meant poverty lied on the horizon (this is starting to get depressing); and the coin prophesied good fortune or riches (that’s a little better); a medallion meant you’d become a monk or in my case a nun (I’ll take the slice with the coin, thanks).
For sanitary reasons it’s most common today to include only the ring or the coin, which is fine by me since food should be a happy thing anyway!
And speaking of happiness, that’s exactly what you can expect while eating Barmbrack. The chewy texture, the sweet raisins, the hint of lemon and the subtle warm spices…yes, barmbrack is a loaf of happiness.
And if you really want to up the happiness factor then slice, toast and butter it…it’s heaven!
Even Van Morrison praised it in “A Sense of Wonder” when he sang
Pastie suppers down at Davey’s chipper
Gravy rings, barmbracks
Wagon wheels, snowballs.
A sense of wonder is right: Absolutely incredible sliced and toasted, barmbrack is like the ultimate cinnamon raisin bread!
Barmbrack goes back several centuries and while modern adaptations include such additions as whiskey and black tea, traditionally barmbrack was quite simple and made use of more readily available ingredients.
It was something even the poorest families could make, using freshly milled flour and dried currants from the garden. And after a long day in the fields you could come home to a highly anticipated loaf of freshly baked barmbrack; the perfect way to end the day.
Of the oldest recipes I researched, none of them included tea or candied citrus peel and only one included whiskey. In this recipe I’m making the tea and whiskey optional for a flavor boost.
Candied lemon peel is a really nice addition but ONLY if you use homemade. There’s a reason many/most people hate store-bought candied citrus peel: It’s awful. Homemade on the other hand…it is AMAZING and will do wonders for your baked goods. Trust me. Make it. Use it. You’ll thank me. Here’s the recipe: Homemade Candied Citrus Peel.
Barmbrack can be made in a variety of shapes; rounds, ovals, square loaves, both large and small. Traditionally it would have been baked in rounds and chunks of it would be broken off and eaten. My preference is to bake it in a loaf so it can be sliced and toasted – my favorite way to eat it.
However you choose to shape and serve it, you’ll love this wonderful traditional Irish bread…sure to become a family favorite!
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Let’s get started!
Place the currants and raisins in a bowl and pour over the cold tea (or water). Let soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. Drain and reserve the liquid for later.
Stir the yeast and teaspoon of sugar in the lukewarm milk. Let it sit for 10 minutes until nice and frothy.
In a stand mixer place the flour, sugar, spices and salt and stir to combine. Make a well and add the melted butter, egg, lemon zest and yeast mixture.
Use the dough hook to knead until just combined. The dough will be very thick (do not add more liquid at this point because the wet currants/raisins will be added).
Add drained currants and raisins and candied lemon peel. Knead until combined, adding some of the reserved currant/raisin juice until a soft dough forms. 
Scrape down the dough from the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for 90-120 minutes or until doubled in size.
Punch down the dough.
If making two smaller loaves, divide the dough in half and shape into rounds. If making one large loaf (as pictured below), place the dough in a greased 9×5 inch loaf pan.
Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another hour or longer until nearly doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake the barmbrack on the middle rack for 50-60 minutes (less if making two smaller loaves) or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
Remove from oven and while hot brush the loaf with the reserved currant/raisins juice for more flavor, moistness and a nice sheen and let cool.
Slice and serve. Barmbrack is especially good toasted and spread with butter.
For some delicious British treats be sure to try our:
- Treacle Tart
- Spotted Dick
- Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Eccles Cakes
- Crumpets
- Welsh Cakes
- Yorkshire Parkin
- Scottish Shortbread
- Bara Brith
- Mincemeat
- Mincemeat Pie
- Lemon Curd
- Victoria Sponge Cake
And learn how to make your own Golden Syrup!
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Irish Barmbrack (Báirín Breac)
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried currants
- 1 cup raisins or sultanas
- 1 cup strong black tea (cold) (optional: add a splash of Irish whiskey or brandy
- 2 teaspoons (7g) active dried yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 3/4 cup lukewarm milk
- 3 1/2 cups (450g) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar (to make your own place granulated white sugar in a blender and pulse until fine but not powder)
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- Homemade mixed spice (click link for recipe) (HIGHLY recommended)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled
- 1 large egg , slightly beaten
- zest of one lemon
- 1/4 cup finely chopped candied lemon (or orange) peel (optional)
- Homemade Candied Citrus Peel (click link for recipe) (VERY STRONGLY recommended)
Instructions
- Place the currants and raisins in a bowl and pour over the cold tea (or water). Let soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. Drain and reserve the liquid for later.
- Stir the yeast and teaspoon of sugar in the lukewarm milk. Let it sit for 10 minutes until nice and frothy.
- In a stand mixer place the flour, sugar, spices and salt and stir to combine. Make a well and add the melted butter, egg, lemon zest and yeast mixture. Use the dough hook to knead until just combined. The dough will be very thick (do not add more liquid at this point because the wet currants/raisins will be added). Add drained currants and raisins and candied lemon peel. Knead until combined, adding some of the reserved currant/raisin juice until a soft dough forms. Scrape down the dough from the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm place for 90-120 minutes or until doubled in size. Punch down the dough. If making two smaller loaves, divide the dough in half and shape into rounds. If making one large loaf (as pictured), place the dough in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for another hour or longer until nearly doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the barmbrack on the middle rack for 50-60 minutes (less if making two smaller loaves) or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from oven and while hot brush the loaf with the reserved currant/raisins juice for more flavor, moistness and a nice sheen and let cool.
- Slice and serve. Barmbrack is especially good toasted and spread with butter.
Sean Cummings says
This is a great recipe and turned out excellent! Overall, very happy. A few things that one should know. 1) if you are going to make the candied lemon peel (which I recommend) you have to start 2 days earlier in order for it to be dried enough to use. 2) currants are very hard to get within the US. Every place I ordered from sent Zante raisins as currants. You will need to plan accordingly to make sure you get actual currants to use in this recipe. 3) the total prep time does not I clue soaking the raisins and currants in the tea overnight. Read the whole recipe through and start a few days ahead of time. That said, I soaked my raisins 3 hours and used just made lemon peel and it still came out great. Thanks for a great recipe!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thanks so much, Sean, I’m so happy you enjoyed it! I’ve corrected the glitch in the prep time to include the fruit soaking time, thanks for bringing that to my attention. The dried currants: It’s a common (and understandable) misconception that what the Brits mean by “dried currants” are actually currants. Dried currants are in fact tiny raisins (ie, Zante raisins). When I first moved to England the terminology threw me for a loop. So Zante raisins are exactly what you need.
Jacquline says
This recipie is good. My family recipie from Co Cork makes Báirín Breac without yeast, and includes a nod to the Celtic New Year by adding a variety of “fortune telling” that is mixed in during the bake. a ring to fortell marriage, a coin to fortell riches, a rag to fortell poverty.
I just want to highlight that Ireland is Irish, not British, Northern Ireland is a different story althogether…Please be careful how you distinguish this
Judy Garden says
Currants and raisins are soaking, peel is drying, spice mix is in my cupboard (the scent of that alone made me want to bake this loaf) and the coins are wrapped in parchment paper. I’m all set to start this tomorrow morning for our very dear Irish friends. This recipe sounds amazing.
Suzanne McKay says
Outstanding. Made this for St Patrick’s for my Irish hubby. I used the homemade citron (divine!) as well as the homemade mixed spices. I ended up with a large loaf and a mini loaf. Smells wonderful while baking. We had to sample the mini loaf while still warm. Toasted with butter is absolutely wonderful. We’ll see if the big loaf makes it another few days. The only thing I would change would be to add a bit more spice mix. This one’s a keeper.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thank you, Suzanne, I’m so happy you made the homemade candied citrus peel and mixed spice and that the barmbrack was a hit!
Fíona says
I’m trying this recipe. firstly, it took a while for the mixer to combine the dry and wet ingredients. Then I added the fruit, without the soaking fluid. This mix looks more like a wet cake mix and there’s no way it’s going to come together like even a high hydrated bread dough.
Not sure what to do now, put it in a bowl to prove and see what happens, then try to bake.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Fiona, there was definitely something off with your measurements. It’s only 3/4 cup liquid (178ml) and 1 egg to 3 1/2 cup (450g) flour so there’s no way that would result in a wet cake mix batter.
Fiona says
Hi Kimberly,
Yes, there’s definitely something not good. The fluid added was as per your recipe and I didn’t even add any of the soaking fluid. The problem arose after the fruit was added. The measurements were good – total of 290g fruit, currants, sultanas and cranberries (all dried fruit). Maybe the fruit absorbed more fluid than anticipated.
I tried your recipe as I wanted a yeasted version as the most Irish recipes use baking powder and give a more dense texture. Back to the drawing board for me.
Sean Cummings says
So, just to confirm. You said in your response to my reviews that you want both regular raisins AND zante raisins and NOT actual currants? I want two versions of raisins? Just want to make sure I understand what you meant in your recipe (which is amazing!). BTW – I asked many an Irish friend and family member for a good recipe for this and they all said they had none. I have given them all this recipe as the golden standard.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Thank you, Sean, I really appreciate that! :) Yes, that’s correct. It’s a combination of zante raisins (very small raisins) and either regular raisins or sultanas (also known as golden raisins). But if you have actual “currant” currants there’s no reason you can’t thrown in some of those as well!
Barbara says
Do you have the metric version
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Hi Barbara, it’s there now. To the right of the word “Ingredients” in the recipe box you’ll see a box that says “Metric” – just click on it and it will show you the metric conversions. Happy baking!
Dara says
In my kitchen in Dublin making my barm breac for Halloween tomorrow as I do every year, and enjoying hunting down Internet recipes. I enjoyed your take on the yeast version (though we never used yeast in our family through the generations). Will be adding some of your ideas to my usual recipe. One thing, I did recoil at then end to read “MORE British recipes…”.
Surely a hundred years after hard earned independence it’s about time people overseas stopped making that basic mistake???
Jake says
Please fix your recipe so the pictures actually align with the steps. As is, it’s confusing as to how it’s supposed to look at each point.
(For instance, after it says “punch down the down, it looks like you have freshly kneaded dough)
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
The photos are for general visual guidelines and not meant to cover every single step. There are other steps not included in the photos either, such as covering the bowl with the plastic wrap.
Judith Mangrum says
I’ve tried making Barmbrak before and didn’t like the recipe I used – this one, however, came out amazing! I didn’t find currents at the store, so I used dried blueberries instead. The bread wound up a little purple but didn’t taste like a blueberry muffin. I also made the candied citrus peel recipe (and the candied ginger since it was there) and holy moly those came out perfect. The simple syrups are no joke awesome, I’ve been drinking hot earl grey tea with ginger syrup all day. It’s well worth making the candied peel the day before and letting the dried fruit soak overnight, I’m very glad I found your recipes!
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
I am absolutely thrilled to hear that, Judith, thank you so much!