I recently learned about a traditional Irish bread called Barmbrack that is used as a fortune-telling game on Halloween.
From Wikipedia:
The Halloween Brack traditionally contained various objects baked into the bread and was used as a sort of fortune-telling game. In the barmbrack were: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a ring. Each item, when received in the slice, was supposed to carry a meaning to the person concerned: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the stick, "to beat one's wife with", would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes; the cloth or rag, would have bad luck or be poor; the coin, would enjoy good fortune or be rich; and the ring, would be wed within the year. Other articles added to the brack include a medallion, usually of the Virgin Mary to symbolise going into the priesthood or to the Nuns, although this tradition is not widely continued in the present day. Commercially produced barmbracks for the Halloween market still include a toy ring.
How could I resist a superstitious Halloween bread? Of course, I left out the wife-beating stick. Yikes.
Barm Brack
Ingredients
1 cup brewed black tea (see method)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 3/4 cup jumbo raisin mix - golden, Thompson, Red Flame
1/2 cup chocolate-covered raisins
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour (sifted before measuring)
2 medium eggs, beaten
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground Saigon cinnamon
2 stars anise
1 cinnamon stick
zest of 1 lemon
Method
-Several hours before baking, measure out the raisins (leave the chocolate raisins out for now), add the anise stars, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, two black tea bags, and add boiling water to cover. Set aside until you are ready to bake.
-Drain the raisins, remove and discard the anise and cinnamon stick. Measure 1 cup of liquid from the drained tea
-In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, soaked raisins, cinnamon, and eggs, beat until just smooth
-add the pumpkin and chocolate-covered raisins
-pour into a small greased pan (I used a 9" meatloaf pan and Bakers Friend)
-bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
-leave in the pan for a few minutes, then turn out to a wire rack
I think it's incredibly easy and delicious, and I was surprised that all my alterations worked (normally, I'd end up with a mess of glop - yay glop). The juicy raisins and rich texture make it perfect for a hearty breakfast - after slathering it up with a lot of butter of course. Yum. I am definitely going to make this bread again, and I think I'll work on making it more pumpkin-y. While it's very good, there's not even a hint of pumpkin. The chocolate-coated raisins really work for me. I love getting surprise chocolate in almost anything. The texture is less like bread and more like a very heavy muffin.
My Barmbrack included a plastic ring (shown in the picture above), a Japanese coin, an ornate button, and a plain button. I told my taste testers that the items meant whatever they wanted - there's no better fortune than that.
This was my first time working with self-raising flour, but I'm guessing that it's an amenable addition to baking. The comments on the All Recipes site indicated that the batter might come out runny. Mine did look a little runny, so I added a extra flour (from 1-1/4 c to 1-3/4 c) and it looked better. The bread is especially dense, but I don't know if it's supposed to be dense, or if it's the additional flour. Like I said, I'll be making this again, to work on making it the pumpkiny raisin bread that I had envisioned.
