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brack

Ireland: Tea Brack / Sweet Bread with Tea, Raisins and Whiskey (March 6, 2008)

Breac or breic (and there are numerous other spellings of the word across the Celtic languages) means "spotted" or "speckled", and is a good way to describe the various sweet or tea breads that now carry the word "brack" in their names, as they routinely contain raisins, sultanas, mixed peel, or other dried or preserved fruits.

This tea bread is not only intended for the tea trolley, but also actually has tea in it, along with the whiskey used to soak the dried fruit before the baking begins. Some versions of this bread even go so far as to add Guinness or similar porter-style beers: but those tend to make the tea flavor undetectable, and the scent of a good strong tea, along with the whiskey, is one of the charms of this particular bread.

Since this version of tea brack has no butter or margarine in it, it keeps very well, especially if you store it in a sealed cake tin or other similar airtight container. (Doubtless the whiskey also helps...) Some sources claim the brack will keep as long as a month in a sealed tin, but EuroCuisineLady has never had one last for more than a few days after baking, so there is no way to verify this.

Click on "read more" for the recipe.

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