Bara Brith And Welsh Cakes

We celebrated  St. David`s Day with some traditional Welsh food. So I made Cawl, Bara Brith and Welsh Cakes. The cawl was so good and disappeared from the table so quickly I did not even manage to take a picture.. but here is the recipe anyway.

Bara Brith

Bara brith means “speckled bread” and can be either a yeast bread enriched with dried fruit or something more like a fruitcake made with self-raising flour (no yeast). It is traditionally made with raisins, currants and candied peel.

For Bara Brith I used:

450 g self raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

175 g Muscavado sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp orange zest

2 tbsp orange juice

1 tbsp honey

300 ml cold tea

450 g mixed dry fruit

extra honey for glazing

And this is what I did:

Put the mixed dried fruit into a bowl, pour over the tea, cover and leave to soak overnight. The next day mix together the sugar, egg, orange juice, zest and honey, add to the fruit. Sift in the flour and spice, and mix well. Pour the mixture into a buttered loaf tin. Bake in a preheated oven at gas3/160c/325f for about 1¾ hours. The loaf should be golden in colour and firm to the touch in the middle. Baste with honey whilst still warm. Allow to cool thoroughly before storing in a cake tin.

The flavour of the Bara Brith can be altered slightly by adding a few flavours. When soaking the fruit, substitute ¼ of the fluid with a whisky liqueur. Replace the honey and fruit juice with 2 tablespoons of marmalade. Alternatively, replace two tablespoons of fruit with chopped stem ginger, and replace the juice and honey with lemon marmalade, and the orange zest with lemon.

Welsh cakes

Welsh Cakes ( picau ar y maen, pice bach, cacen gri or teisen radell in Welsh) are traditional Welsh snacks. As the cakes  are traditionally cooked on a bakestone (maen in Welsh), they are also known as bakestones. Welsh cakes are served hot or cold dusted with caster sugar. Unlike scones, they are not usually eaten with an accompaniment, though they are sometimes sold ready split and spread with jam, and they are sometimes buttered.

For Welsh Cakes I used:

225g  plain flour
100g  butter
75g  caster sugar
50g  currants
½tsp baking powder
¼tsp mixed spice
1 egg
A pinch salt
A little milk to bind

And this is what I did:

Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, mixed spice) together into a mixing bowl. Cut up the butter and rub into the flour. Stir in the sugar and fruit, pour in the egg and mix to form a dough, use a little milk if the mixture is a little dry. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a biscuit. Use a pastry cutter to cut out rounds. Cook the cakes on a greased bake stone or griddle until golden. The heat should not be too high, as the cakes will cook on the outside too quickly, and not in the middle. Once cooked sprinkle with caster sugar.

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Kõmride rahvuspüha St. Davidi päeva tähistasime rahvustoitudega. Seekord ma valisin sellised toidud nagu Cawl, Bara Brith ja Welsh Cakes.

Cawl on hautis, mida valmistatakse kättesaadavast kraamist. Mägises piirkonnas kasutatakse rohkem lambaliha, mere ääres mereande. Mina tegin lambalihast hautise. Vanal ajal kasutati aga hoopis peekonit. Huvitav on see, et vanasti serveeriti Cawli paksendatud puljongina ja peale seda alles serveeriti liha juurviljadega. Seda siis lõuna pool. Põhjapool on kasutusel nimi Lobsgows ja selle puhul puljongit ei paksendatud. Cawl tähendabki tõlkes puljong või supp. Eesti mõistes on see ikkagi rohkem supp, kui hautis. Siin ju tykilisi suppe ei tunta.. kõik püreestatakse.

Bara Brith tähendab tõlkes Tähniline Leib. Tähniliseks teevad leiva kuivatatud puuviljatükid. Ja retsepti teeb eriliseks see, et neid puuviljatükke leotatakse öö läbi kange musta tee sees. Tähnilise Leiva viilule määritakse peale võid. Minu leib (vahest kutsutakse ka seda koogiks)  tuli välja magus ja seega meeldis mulle rohkem, kui mittemagus variant. Kumb see õigem on, ma ei teagi.

Welsh Cakes on sarnased  scone– dega, aga nad on kujult lamedamad ja süüakse ilma lisanditeta. Tegelikult tänapäeval pakutakse juurde võid. Mina söön muidugi ilma. (Ma söön scone– sid ka ilma lisanditeta).