Wales - Bara Brith and some others

The ancient region of the United Kingdom, in Welsh called Cymru, is a land of dragons, daffodils and leeks – and a surprising number of 'breads'. Today, March 1st, is St David's Day, the national day of Wales. All of this is an excellent reason to feature it today. 

Perhaps the most well-known and popular of the breads of Wales is one that is unyeasted and contains no fat. It is quick and easy to make and tastes delicious. Its name, bara brith, means 'speckled bread' because of the dried fruit it contains. Almost any bakery in the country sells this, and every family, or even town, will have its own recipe – and each of them swears theirs is the best.

Here is the one I used today. It cuts well and doesn't crumble, and is enough like a bread to even make a sweet sandwich, or spread with butter or slices of cheese.

What you may not know is that the Welsh recipe for bara brith was taken by Welsh settlers to the Chubut province of Argentina when they arrived there sometime around 1865. It has since become a traditional Argentinean food known as torta negra which means 'black cake'.

BARA BRITH

3 strong tea bags and 300ml boiling water

OR 300ml strong tea

3/4 cup soft brown sugar

250g or 2 cups mixed dried fruit

2 cups SR white flour

1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch salt

1 large egg, beaten

Brew the teabags or make a pot of tea. Remove the tea bags or strain the tea into a bowl, and stir in the sugar to dissolve. Add the mixd fruit and allow to stand overnight, or at least a couple of hours.

Mix all the dry ingredients together and mix in the egg, then add the soaked fruit and tea. You should have a thickish cake-like batter. Pour this into a greased and lined loaf tin and bake in a preheated 170C oven for around an hour, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin on a rack for ten minutes, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.

Makes 1 loaf.

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Welsh cakes are another small bread, more like a scone, and unlike bara brith are rich in butter and (often) lard. Watch this video and learn how to make them.

Perhaps the strangest 'bread' in Wales, though, is laverbread. Not in any way a bread, laver is a seaweed (nori in Japan) easily gathered along the coastline. A very old use of it is to boil the seaweed for several hours, then mince or puree it into a gelatinous paste. It is generally rolled in fine oatmeal before frying it and serving with bacon or cockles.

(pic: Jiel Baumadier)

One final dish to mention is Welsh rarebit, hot melted cheese poured over toast, and although not a bread it would, after all, hardly exist without it.