Barmbrack | Irish Tea Bread (2024)

FAQs

What does the ring in the brack mean? ›

Each item had a special significance for the person who discovered it in their slice of cake. The person who received the pea wouldn't marry that year; the stick meant an unhappy marriage; the cloth indicated poverty and the coin riches; while the person who found the ring would wed within the year.

It is tradition to add objects to the barmbrack which symbolize certain things for the person who receives it in their slice: a coin — wealth or good fortune; a ring — will marry within the year; a bean — poverty; a pea — will not marry within the year; a matchstick — unhappy marriage; a thimble — single for life.

Barmbrack is sometimes called bairín breac. This may be from the Irish word bairín - a loaf - and breac - speckled (due to the raisins in it). Therefore, it means 'a speckled loaf'.

The bread was used as a type of fortune telling game. Each hidden item, when received in a slice, had a different meaning. Usually related to marriage or riches. Ring: receiving a ring would mean that you would be wed within the year.

There is a piece of rag, a coin and a ring in each cake, with each item having a meaning behind it. The rag suggested your financial future is in doubt. The coin is a positive sign and suggests a prosperous year. A ring is also positive and suggests impending romance or continued happiness.

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, 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; the ...

Whoever discovers the bean inside their cakey slice can expect spinsterhood, while the finder of the ring can expect marriage. Anyone who bites down on the coin will have a prosperous future (and, perhaps, a chipped tooth), while the person who chews into a piece of cloth will fall on hard times.

“That name is based on the days before commercial yeast. Bakers had what was called a barm; a bucket of flour and water that became their fermented yeast. This is what they'd bake a barm cake with, and which is essentially what people are now using to make their sourdough.”

Barmbrack, Irish tea brack or in Gaelic, bairín breac (meaning speckled loaf) is a traditional sweetened bread commonly made around the Halloween season in Ireland. Many of the older traditional recipes use yeast, and are lighter in colour and texture than the bracks most people come across today.

What is the difference between tea brack and barmbrack? ›

Differences Between Tea Brack and Barmbrack

The first is a tea brack, which involves soaking dried fruit in black tea overnight, before baking it into a butter free cake. Barmbrack is different in that it is made using strong flour and yeast. There is far less dried fruit used in a barm brack compared to a tea brack.

According to Mary Berry (one of the judges of the original Great British Bake Off) the Welsh version is called bara brith, which translates to 'speckled bread'. In Ireland it is called Barm Brack and in Scotland Selkirk Bannock. Whatever you call it, it doesn't last long in this house.

The most common symbols are a pea, a matchstick, a piece of cloth, a coin, a thimble, and a ring. Of these, the only ones worth having are the coin (unsurprisingly a predictor of wealth) and the ring - but only if you're single and in the market for getting hitched, as it is said to indicate an impending marriage.

Barmbrack, Irish tea brack or in Gaelic, bairín breac (meaning speckled loaf) is a traditional sweetened bread commonly made around the Halloween season in Ireland.