Bara Brith

Bara brith is a Welsh “speckled bread”: slice it thinly and dried fruit appears scattered across the cut surface. Serving it with tea and spreading it with butter are common to all versions, but there is no single way to make it. Some are breads kneaded with yeast, left to rise and baked; others are loaves made by mixing self-raising flour into fruit soaked in tea, and the crumb and texture differ. As a celebratory bread containing fruit and spices, it varied in ingredients and proportions from region to region and from household to household.

Differences in the Proportions of Yeast-Raised Breads

In the method handed down in Bala, Gwynedd, butter is rubbed into plain flour, which is then combined with sugar, 3 kinds of dried grapes, candied peel and spices. Yeast dissolved in warm milk is added together with egg, the dough is kneaded, and its consistency is adjusted with black treacle dissolved in a little hot water. The dough is left to rise for about an hour and a half, then divided into tins and baked.

The recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) handed down in Rhyd Lewis, Ceredigion, by contrast, has a simple composition: wholemeal flour, currants, yeast, salt, milk and water. Among bara brith made with yeast, too, some add eggs and butter and some do not. This version is kneaded well, left to rise for about an hour, shaped and baked. Its method of raising differs from that of versions made with tea and self-raising flour. And even among yeast breads, the amounts of flour, fat and fruit vary.

Putting the Tea into the Dough Instead of Throwing It Away

In the method using tea, dried fruit and brown sugar are first put into strong, hot tea and left for 6 hours or more, or overnight. Once the fruit has absorbed the liquid and plumped up and the sugar has dissolved, flour, mixed spice and egg are mixed in. The tea in which the fruit was soaked is not thrown away at this stage but is taken into the dough as its liquid. Because the colours of the tea, the brown sugar and the fruit build on one another, the inside turns a deep brown. The black treacle added in the yeast method brings yet another dark aroma and colour.

There are also proportions in which the fruit outweighs the flour: 250 grams of self-raising flour, 300 millilitres of tea and 1 egg to 400 grams of fruit. Because no butter is worked in, the result is a dense loaf in which the dough binds together a large quantity of fruit. Some people, rather than eating it straight after baking, keep it sealed airtight for a day or two before slicing, and spreading it with salted butter adds a dairy flavour and saltiness to the sweetness of the fruit. Slices can also be lightly toasted and topped with cold butter.

An example of bara brith made with tea. A loaf containing fruit sits on a plate. Photo: James Petts, 2012-12-15, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 2.0. Downscaled version from the source; no additional editing.

The Tradition of Leftover Dough and Changes in the Proportions

In Wales, a story is told that it began when fruit, sugar and spices were added to dough left over from bread-making to turn it into a dish for a special day. The original proportions and date are unknown, but it is a story of a sweet bread born of household thrift. The Bala, Gwynedd, and Rhyd Lewis, Ceredigion, recipes collected by National Museum Wales were likewise both methods in which the dough was kneaded with yeast and left to rise.

There are also several early uses of the word. Predating the 1888 usage for a fruit bread recorded by a dictionary, the 1857 Seren Cymru carried an article about bara brith being eaten before a school examination in Bala. Records of the name survived not only in cookery books but also in scenes from school and the table.

The 1946 Farmhouse Fare includes a recipe using a raising agent by A. M. Davies of Montgomeryshire. It uses the dried egg of the rationing period, but no step of soaking the fruit in tea is recorded. This 1946 recipe shows that even with doughs made without yeast, the fruit was not always soaked in tea.

A Welsh Celebration Bread and the Tea Culture of Chubut

The yeast-raised bara brith handed down in households in Rhyd Lewis was baked for Christmas, New Year and harvest suppers. Once eaten by people who gathered after finishing their work, this bread is now enjoyed in cafés and as a snack at home, and it also appears on St David’s Day, 1 March.

Welsh people who emigrated to Chubut Province, Argentina, from 1865 onwards brought homemade breads and cakes to the chapel after services and gatherings and shared tea together. At these tea tables, which took in local ingredients, the dark fruit cake torta negra gradually became the centrepiece. What continued in the new land was not the exact proportions of the Welsh loaf but the custom of sharing fruit cake with tea.

Glossary