Happy St Patrick’s Day (!) from me and this beautiful barmbrack (bairin breac or “speckled loaf” in Gaelic,) a fragrant Irish bread studded with whiskey-and-tea-soaked dried fruit. Like Mardi Gras king cakes which come with good luck tokens hidden inside (coins, rings, plastic baby figurines), Irish barmbrack is also often baked with trinkets in it that follow Druidic fortune-telling traditions: Coins for good fortune, thimbles predicting spinster or bachelorhood, beans portending poverty etc. I kept this recipe trinket-free, figuring that the whiskey-soaked fruit is treasure enough. Recipe yields one, fragrant, lightly sweet bread that’s very good eaten right out of the oven or toasted the next day and spread with plenty of Irish butter. And for more St. Patrick’s Day fare, try our Colcannon, our Ballymaloe Irish Stew and our Corned Beef Hash for corned. beef leftovers the day after.
