Barmbrack (Irish Sweet Bread) Recipe (2024)

In most of the Irish recipes for barmbrack which I've seen, the fruit is marinated overnight in tea. This gives the bread a rather darker colour than in the photo, as well as a rather interesting flavour.

Wish I had read all the notes folks submitted. I do like Tannis' comments and historical backgrounds, but, this is the last Tannis recipe I prepare. I'm a fair cook, and have tried at least a half dozen of his recipes, all of which were off somehow. I thought it was me. Respectfully suggest that someone on NY Times Food staff test the recipes beforehand. No pan size? Really. Dough far too wet to handle. And so on ...

Well, it finally came out OK, though not without a struggle. Why no mention of the size of the pan? I could barely deal with this soupy dough, and then had to bake it almost twice as long to get a decent consistency. I can usually depend on the NY Times recipes, but not this one. Very careless.

As many have pointed out, the dough was very wet, so I didn't knead it but poured it into my one loaf pan like I would cake batter (or banana bread). At first, the dough came up to 1/3 of the pan, and hadn't risen much over the next hour or the next. But it had reached 7/8 of the pan when I checked on it after 6 more hours. My version actually came out looking more moist than the one in the picture, and I was glad I hadn't tried to knead the dough because I found the bread slightly chewy.

I've made this a number of times exactly according to this recipe. Yesterday, I accidentally left out the sugar and, at breakfast, couldn't tell the difference!

I used rapid rise yeast. Combined dry ingredients. In a measuring cup I heated milk in the microwave to 125 degrees, added butter which melted, added egg and whisked these wet ingredients together. Added to dry ingredients and kneaded in the mixer for 5 minutes.
Upon taking the loaf from the oven I rubbed it with butter and sprinkled with with a thick coating of icing sugar (powdered sugar).

I made this as a Gluten-free loaf, quite successfully! I'm looking forward to making it again. I used some sorghum flour, and the flour mix from Cook's Illustrated Gluten-free cookbook (the first one). I added a teaspoon of baking powder to aid in the rise of the gluten-free flour. It was great slightly warm from the oven, room temp the next day, and as toast, too. Loved it!

Adapted recipe to my Zojirushi breadmaker using "Raisin Bread" as guide. Came out delicious.

Soupy? I think you skipped a step. You're supposed to knead on a floured surface until smooth. Meaning, add a flour until the loaf is smooth.

I just tried this and it was a disaster. The original recipe by Rachel Allen has a hydration (water divided by flour) of 67%, which is pretty standard. This one is 74%, which is like a wet ciabatta dough. I followed the directions and the dough was soup; it never came together. I added another 52 g flour to make it at least cohesive.

Followed the instructions and had no problems. Finished making the dough before I decided what size of loaf pan to use. The dough was very soft but well floured board and a good dusting of flour on the dough made kneading easy. Tasty. Will make it again.

This was not a dough as written - it was a batter. I needed to add at least 50g flour and knead on an incredibly well-floured surface to make it come together.

I agree with Joan Canada. I compared the proportions in my Irish grandmother's recipe to this one. It is a 3.5:1 flour:milk ratio. Mr. Tanis' recipe is off. It's a wet dough - somewhere between batter & bread dough. A bit of flour sprinkled on the counter & a dough scraper make handling it easier. Barmbrack freezes well & makes a good gift to friends & neighbors.

The calories are around 350 per serve (based on 6 servings.) Edamam has treated the flour - contibuting 146 calories per serve - as contributing ZERO. I think this "bug" with Edamam where "plus more for dusting" etc would result in the ingredient returning ZERO has now been fixed. (That doesn't do anything to fix the unreliable nutrition info out there, such as with this recipe though.)

As one commenter noted, the dough is super wet, so impossible to "knead." I was skeptical but it turned out perfect. For spices, I used 1/4 tsp each of ground mace, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves to resemble a more typical mixed spice blend. I soaked my fruit in 1.5 Tbs of calvados for a couple of hours beforehand. Baked mine in an 8 inch round tin, as loaf pan is not traditional for this type of bread.

Use 2 c bread flour and 0.5 c whole wheat. One and a half tspn yeast

Today I made this recipe to celebrate St. Patrick's Day (without the parades). I needed to add flour during the kneeding step to get the dough to come together and soften, probably 1/2 C. And it took 2 hours at 80-85 degrees to double in bulk. The results were great.

Overall really good! I had a similar problem with the dough being too sticky, so I added a handful of flour and kneaded with the dough hook rather than by hand. I didn't have all the add ins, so I put in ground ginger and crystalized ginger in addition to currants. It was especially tasty with butter and cheddar cheese.

Adapted recipe to my Zojirushi breadmaker using "Raisin Bread" as guide. Came out delicious.

I made this recipe today. In addition to the lack of detail about the pan size, the flour/liquid ratio seems off. The dough was very wet when mixed. I had to add almost another cup of flour in order to knead it. As others have stated, it would be nice if these recipes were kitchen-tested and adjusted as needed.

I've made this a number of times exactly according to this recipe. Yesterday, I accidentally left out the sugar and, at breakfast, couldn't tell the difference!

I made this as a Gluten-free loaf, quite successfully! I'm looking forward to making it again. I used some sorghum flour, and the flour mix from Cook's Illustrated Gluten-free cookbook (the first one). I added a teaspoon of baking powder to aid in the rise of the gluten-free flour. It was great slightly warm from the oven, room temp the next day, and as toast, too. Loved it!

As many have pointed out, the dough was very wet, so I didn't knead it but poured it into my one loaf pan like I would cake batter (or banana bread). At first, the dough came up to 1/3 of the pan, and hadn't risen much over the next hour or the next. But it had reached 7/8 of the pan when I checked on it after 6 more hours. My version actually came out looking more moist than the one in the picture, and I was glad I hadn't tried to knead the dough because I found the bread slightly chewy.

Followed the instructions and had no problems. Finished making the dough before I decided what size of loaf pan to use. The dough was very soft but well floured board and a good dusting of flour on the dough made kneading easy. Tasty. Will make it again.

I've made this recipe twice now: once subbing candied citron for half the raisins and the two zests and once exactly according to the recipe. I used all purpose flour and it turned out great both times. The rising time was closer to 2 hours. The dough doubles but that's all: it is so laden with fruit.