'Wot RoTT' exchange

[karen f.]

And a rhubarb pie should be 12" long by 3" wide 8) :lol: if only you could get the pie dish the right shape for it :wink:

By the way, with rhubarb, it is very sharp and can need more sugar than sometimes you think, look for the smaller stems they tend to be sweeter

LOL!

[Sharon E.]

I have a great recipe for rhubarb. KILL IT!! I can't stand any type of rhubarb much to my DH and late MIL sadness. LOL

Sharon in CO - 70 degrees here today --Love it.

[E.M. T.]

Rita...Bracks ??? Another new thing! Marilyn

[Rita C.]

[quote="sewengel"]I have a great recipe for rhubarb. KILL IT!! I can't stand any type of rhubarb much to my DH and late MIL sadness. LOL

Sharon, how could you... Rhubarb and Ginger jam is one of the greatest pleasures in this world!

Marilyn, yes a tea-brack is a sort of fruit cake where you soak the fruit in tea overnight (there is also a porter cake where you soak the fruit in alcohol). A thick slice with a slab of Kerrygold butter and a cup of tea .... nothing like it

[Renata L.]

Rita,
I would happily accept a recipe for Irish tea bracks!!! :P :P :P It has dates in it, too, doesn't it? Thanks, Renata
PS I just came back home from a couple of hours out of the house and I've found all this food talk when I logged back in... Yumm!!!

[Lorna B.]

Yahoo search gave me this info on tea brack. Looks yummy!

So do you use brewed tea or Irish Whiskey for your recipe??

Tea brack — a.k.a. Irish Freckle Bread — is a moist, close-grained, packed-with-fruit breakfast bread. The flavor of the whole wheat is discernible, yet not overpowering because it's complemented by just the right degree of sweetness. Interestingly, the recipe uses brewed tea as its liquid. If desired, substitute 2 tablespoons Irish whiskey for an equal amount of the tea. This recipe comes from our award-winning cookbook, The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion


Great recipe choices. I'll have to go to the store tomorrow to see if I can find rhubarb! Thanks for the suggestions.

Lorna

[Rita C.]

Renata, traditionally we don't use dates in a tea-brack - but you can put whatever fruit you like into it.

Here's the recipe:

RITA'S IRISH TEA BRACK

16oz dried fruit (we just use raisins and sultanas)
16 fl oz strong black tea
4 oz soft brown sugar
4 oz granulated white sugar
1 egg
14 oz plain white flour (without raising agent)
1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon baking powder

Put the raisins and sultanas into a bowl, cover with the tea and leave overnight to allow the fruit to plump up. The next day preheat the oven to 160C/320F. Line two 2lb loaf tins with baking parchment. Add the sugar and egg to the fruit and tea and combine well. Sieve the flour, mixed spice and baking powder and add it to the fruit mix stirring thoroughly. The mixture should be softish. You can add a little more flour if it seems too runny or a little more tea, or milk, if it seems to dry. Divide the mixture between the two loaf tins. Bake at 160C/320F for 30 minutes and then turn down the oven to 150C/300F for a further 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack - if you can wait that long - and serve with butter and a cup of tea. Enjoy.

[Rita C.]

Lorna, we always use tea. A brack with alcohol in it is a porter-cake. And I don't know anybody who would use wholewheat flour in theirs. It's not a breakfast bread either - it's something you would have at elevenses or for afternoon tea.

[Lorna B.]

Thanks for the recipe. That looks great.

Woohoo! I have received the last package I was waiting for. Let the sorting begin!

Lorna

[Lorna B.]

Rita,
I had to look up sultanas, never heard of them. Seems they are what we refer to as Golden raisins here in the states.
Does this sound like your mixed spice? 1 tbsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp coriander, ground
1 tsp nutmeg, ground
1/2 tsp ginger, ground
1/4 tsp allspice, ground
1/4 tsp cloves, ground

Also, would nuts be good in this do you think?
Karen

[Lorna B.]

Renata, traditionally we don't use dates in a tea-brack - but you can put whatever fruit you like into it.

Here's the recipe:

RITA'S IRISH TEA BRACK

16oz dried fruit (we just use raisins and sultanas)
16 fl oz strong black tea
4 oz soft brown sugar
4 oz granulated white sugar
1 egg
14 oz plain white flour (without raising agent)
1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon baking powder

Put the raisins and sultanas into a bowl, cover with the tea and leave overnight to allow the fruit to plump up. The next day preheat the oven to 160C/320F. Line two 2lb loaf tins with baking parchment. Add the sugar and egg to the fruit and tea and combine well. Sieve the flour, mixed spice and baking powder and add it to the fruit mix stirring thoroughly. The mixture should be softish. You can add a little more flour if it seems too runny or a little more tea, or milk, if it seems to dry. Divide the mixture between the two loaf tins. Bake at 160C/320F for 30 minutes and then turn down the oven to 150C/300F for a further 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack - if you can wait that long - and serve with butter and a cup of tea. Enjoy.

I have a recipe for Barmbrack similar to this but it includes currents and only brown sugar, not the mix of sugars and for a shortcut - if I have forgotten to put the fruit to soak overnight (usual occurance :roll: ) I will use hot tea and simmer the fruit for about 1/2 hour - just be careful that the mix is not too hot when adding the egg!

Haven't made any in ages I think that I will have to now - huuungreeey!

[Renata L.]

Rita and Rosemary, I have all the ingredients for either of your recipes right in my pantry. Do you know how excited I am? I'm still a new quilter(need frequent breaks from the sewing machine)... so there is nothing, including quilting, that could take me from the kitchen to make bracks :P :P Will let you know how they turn out. Not sure which version I'll try first but we'll find out in the kitchen.
Mille Grazie!!!!

[Rita C.]

Rita,
I had to look up sultanas, never heard of them. Seems they are what we refer to as Golden raisins here in the states.
Does this sound like your mixed spice? 1 tbsp cinnamon, ground
1 tsp coriander, ground
1 tsp nutmeg, ground
1/2 tsp ginger, ground
1/4 tsp allspice, ground
1/4 tsp cloves, ground

Also, would nuts be good in this do you think?
Karen

Karen, it is 1 teaspoon of mixed spice, not 1 tablespoon! We just get it as a tin of ground mixed spice. The spices vary according to the different manufacturers. But I think the principle flavour is cinnamon and cloves with a hint of ginger. The tin I have at the moment lists the ingredients as Cinnamon, Coriander, Cloves, Fennel, Ginger and Bay Leaf. Do you use a mixed spice for pumpkin pie? It will work for this too. Yes, I would say Golden Raisins are the same as Sultanas. Really, any dried fruit and nuts will work in it. Personally, I just love it all fruity.

Rosemary, a Barm Brack here is always made with yeast not baking powder. And it always has mixed peel in it which I really don't like. And then there's the ring to break your tooth on! :roll:

[Renata L.]

Okay, now that I read Rita's comment to Rosemary, I know I will be making Rita's recipe first (if I can just get away from the computer :lol: )
Renata

[Renata L.]

Rita, yeast in a 'barm' brack doesn't surprise me, since barm is an old term to refer to fermenting yeast and to be 'barmy' is to be suffering from a surfeit of fermeted products. My recipe comes from the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook (Mum has a copy, & I got my own after I got married) Their Barm brack recipe is

12 fl oz cold tea
7oz soft brown sugar
12 oz mixed dried fruit
10 oz self-raising flour
1 egg.

I always chuck in extra fruit, because I remember as a small child that dried fruit was exactly that dried, and in a handful of sultanas you would only get 1 or 2 that would squish between the fingers, nowadays they all squish between the fingers ergo - they are not as dried as they used to be. Therefore you need more fruit today to get the sameish number of them if the recipe is over 20 years old. Anyway I like lots of fruit. :wink:

The first time I made some for the in-laws, FIL insisted on trying a slice fried with his breakfast, it works nearly as well as christmas pudding

PS do you think Renata has got the fruit into the tea to soak yet? :wink: