Why brack is not just for Halloween
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If I could describe the aroma that has just filled the studio, because I now have with me award-winning Irish baker, Graeme Hertrich. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. You're very, very welcome. I saw actually recently you were awarded the Blasna Heron Producers Champion. Congratulations.
Yes, it's actually a real honour to be their producer champion. Because that's the peers, that's your... Yeah, it's other producers voting for a person that they think is doing a lot for other producers. And yeah, so to be voted for, it's just, it's magical.
Yeah, it's fantastic. And it's wonderful that you got that nod. You are known as the cupcake bloke on social media, but today you're here to talk about something that I normally associate with Halloween, but having smelt what you brought into studio, now I say this can be all year.
Brach.
Brack, yes. So there's two different types of brack. Most people are used to barn brack at Halloween. But what I cook all year round and sell all year round is tea brack. So tea brack is what... It's funny, most people now associate barn brack as it's actually tea brack. It's where you soak your fruit in tea and... cook it with flour, eggs, spices the following day. Barmbrach, which is traditional for Halloween, is a yeasted bread, an enriched yeasted bread. But what I love cooking... It's quite dense. Yeah, it's quite... Well, actually, no, it's not the dense one. It's quite... It's actually, it's a heavy fruit loaf where what I love cooking is these tea loaves because that's what I got. That's what I learned to bake when I was growing up.
My granny teaches me to bake brach.
So is this your brach or is this your granny's brach?
This is my take on my granny's brach. It is my take on my granny's brach.
You're Granny Flynn. And I just think it's a wonderful how we are passed on these recipes. Did you write it out for you or did you just watch her?
What types of brack are discussed in this episode?
I just watched her. I have a very vivid memory of sitting in her kitchen in Hanover and she had like this beautiful mason cash bowl. And the one thing that always sticks in my head was when she was weighing the fruit, she was pouring tea in from a teapot. And it was not to be too hot. Hot or cold? Not to be hot and not to be too cold. Because if it was too hot, the fruit absorbs it too quickly. If it's too cold, it takes too long. So it was like she was after having a cup of tea and then she used the tea about 15, 20 minutes later.
So that was her secret. What was your twist? What's your twist?
Well, this one is quite a classic one. But what I do is I do loads of twists.
How is tea brack different from barn brack?
Like even I know we're going to share a recipe today where I make one with coffee. And I actually soak the fruit in coffee instead of tea. And I add in chocolate and pecans. And yeah, so you're taking away the mixed peel. So it's not as citrusy. But yeah, the fruit with coffee is a beautiful combination. And I add in dates and chocolate and pecans.
And do you fry brack? Can you fry brack?
Pan fried brack. I love a slice of hot brack. And particularly, it's actually a nod to my grandad, Flynn, who used to love having fried pudding on Christmas Day. I love to fry a slice of brack. So there's a melted butter in a pan, let it go foaming and then put in a slice of brack.
Don't let Professor Robert Byrne hear you talking about that. I know. Frying brack and smelting it with butter.
But the thing about brack is like you need butter on brack. And like I always say as a guide, you should be able to see your teeth marks in the butter on brack.
Yeah.
That's how you know when you've enough butter on it.
We won't bring the cardiologist back to do that. Two litres of double cream, buttermilk, everything. It's a very rich...
Yeah, like butter, making butter. So again, I think we're going to share the recipe today.
It'll all be up on the website, don't worry.
And that's actually Sally McKenna's recipe from Sally and John McKenna, the guides. It's her recipe for butter and it's just making your own butter. It sounds like a bit of a fluff, but it's gorgeous. And you do get that byproduct of having buttermilk that you can then use in scones and things like that.
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