Hi FoodTube KerryAnne here. As you can probably guess, I'm celebrating Halloween
I'm here in Derry, London Derry, Northern Ireland
Which is one of the most undiscovered foodie destinations in whole of Europe
So, i don't know if you know but Halloween actually originated on the island of Ireland, so what better place to make Barmbrack
Barmbrack is a traditional Irish Fruit loaf which is usually eaten at Halloween
But it's so delicious you could make it all year round
This recipe will serve 10 people easily
Let's get started
Here I have 350 grams of mixed fruit. So in here I've got raisins, sultanas, some mixed peel
I've got here 400 ml of boiling water
And to that I'm going to add 4 teabags
Then I'm going to add 2 table spoons of vanilla extract
And 2 table spoons of Irish whiskey
But if you're making this recipe for children, by all means you can leave whiskey out
And give that a nice mix
Were going to pour that over the fruit
Leave that to soak for as long as possible, overnight would be great
So this is what they look like
After they've been soaking overnight and they're all plump and juicy
Now, onto the dough
Here I have 340 grams of strong bread flour
And to that I am going to add 3 table spoons of ground mixed spice
And half a tea spoon of ground sea salt
And 1 sachet or 7 grams of fast acting dried yeast
Finally, I'm going to add 75 grams of caster sugar
These dry ingredients are now going to go into the kitchen mixer
By all means, if you don't have a machine at home, you can do this by hand, it's not problem.
I'm going to get the jug that we made our tea in
And to that I'm going to add 225ml of whole milk, 2 free range eggs
And 35 grams of melted unsalted butter
I'm going to give that a little beat up
Just to break up the eggs a little bit, we're going to add this to our dry ingredients in the mixer
I'm going to start the machine off really, really slowly
Otherwise the flour will go everywhere, trust me it's a mistake I've made once, once you've done it, you'll never do it again
Right so that's been mixing for about 5 or 6 minutes now, I've had a little tidy up, got rid of all my dirty dishes
Now don't be worried, it's supposed to look like that
It is a wet dough, it's very sticky, but it will taste awesome
So here I've got the fruits that we soaked overnight
We don't want any of the excess tea or whisky or vanilla
We don't want to make our dough any wetter
So what I'm going to do is, I'm just going to take handfuls
Squeeze it out
And add it in
So I'm going to leave that for about 5 minutes, just so everything gets well mixed and well incorporated
Right so it is ready
Very tacky, very spicy, very fruity
So here I have a loaf tin which I've just lined with some grease proof paper
And I'm going to pout in our lovely mixture
Ireland is full of traditions and a lovely tradition with this recipe is to add lots of little goodies
Which all symbolise different things
I'm going to add a brass ring, which I've sterilised in boiling water
And I'm also, just for extra precaution, going to wrap it in a little bit of grease proof paper
And then I'm going to stuff it, secretly
Into my loaf, so it's in there somewhere, no one knows where
I'm going to leave this now to prove, or to rise for about an hour
Just to let the yeast do its work, let some little air bubbles form
But I have got one that I done a couple of hours ago, to show you
So come and have a look at this guys
See all those little air bubbles popping up, so it's going to be lovely and light when it comes out of the oven
So this goes into a pre heated oven, gas mark 5, 180 degrees for about 40 to 45 minutes
Until it's a really nice dark golden brown on top
And you put a skewer in and the skewer comes out clean
So, I'll see you when this is ready
Ok guys so, our Barmbrack is ready, I've taken it out of the tin
I've taken the grease proof off and I can't wait to cut in
That looks awesome, you can see it's beautifully moist, it's all spongy and you've got those juicy fruits
As you can see, this is breaking up quite a bit
And that's because I've cut it while it's hot from the oven
I haven't let it cool down because I like it when the butter melts
I found the ring!
Apparently the ring is supposed to bring luck, wealth and marriage, so
I'm going to keep that piece for myself
I'm going to butter this, I'm going to cut it into small pieces, I'm going to take it outside and see what the people of Derry, London Derry really think
Hi guys, I've made a traditional Irish Barmbrack, and being an English girl in Northern Ireland, I wondered if you'd like to try it for me
And tell me if I've done a good job or not
Its very nice
Is it a good representation for an English girl?
It is certainly
Did you used to have this a lot at Halloween then?
Do you eat it all the time?
Yeah every year
So what do you think?
Not too heavy. No it's not
Just nice, I mean that
Thank you very much!
Look guys there's people getting into the Halloween spirit already, let's go and see if I can give them a taste
It's a winner
Ah thank you
OK Bye!
He's still coming
Help me!
Yes!
So there you have it guys, my delicious Barmbrack recipe
The people of Derry London, Derry seem to love it
Give it a go, let me know how you get on in the comments box below
If your'e in Northern Ireland check out the Banks of the Foyle Halloween festival
It's the biggest one in Europe, I'm sure you'll love it, it's a great place to be on holiday
But until then, have fun and I'll see you soon. Happy cooking