On the second bake of a Welsh Christmas I made a Christmas Bara Brith.

This week I have made up my own Christmas Bara Brith recipe.  In Welsh Bara Brith means speckled bread and the speckles are the mixed fruits added to the bread mixture.  As this is a Christmas Bara Brith I have added dried cranberries and brandy

Bara Brith takes two days to make as the fruit is soaked in black tea and brandy for a day.  Once the fruit has been soaked,  flour, mixed spice and egg is added to the fruit and then put into to a bread tin and then baked in the oven for 90minutes.  The Bara Brith is cooked when a skewer is inserted in the middle of the Bara Brith and if it comes out clean it is ready to come out of the oven.

Ingredients

200g Cranberries

450g Dried Mixed Fruit

150ml black tea

150ml brandy

450g Self Raising Flour

250g Brown sugar

3tsp Mixed Spice

1 Lightly Beaten Egg

Soak the fruits in a bowl overnight with the black tea and brandy.  When the fruit has been soaked add the sieved flour, brown sugar, mixed spice and egg to the fruits.  If your mixture is slightly hard to mix add a bit more tea.  When the mixture has been mixed together place in a lined loaf tin and bake in the oven for 90 minutes.

Bara Brith tastes even nicer when it is a couple of days old so cover in bread foil and store for a couple of days before slicing it and serving with butter.

History says that bBara Brith was the last loaf put into  the oven at the end of the weekly bake, adding the fruit to the bread dough made it taste nicer