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Brendan O'Connor

Why brack is not just for Halloween

23 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is brack and why is it associated with Halloween?

0.031 - 7.883 Brendan O'Connor

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.

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8.104 - 8.404 Graeme Herterich

Good afternoon.

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8.424 - 13.592 Brendan O'Connor

You're very, very welcome. I saw actually recently you were awarded the Blasnaheran Producers' Champion. Congratulations.

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13.612 - 28.173 Graeme Herterich

Yes, it's actually a real honour to be the Producers' Champion. Because that's a peer, 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.

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28.213 - 44.355 Brendan O'Connor

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.

44.795 - 45.276

Brack.

45.374 - 68.888 Graeme Herterich

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.

69.488 - 86.805 Graeme Herterich

Barmbrach, which is traditional for Halloween, is a yeasted bread, an enriched yeasted bread. But what I love cooking... 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.

86.825 - 88.086 Graeme Herterich

My granny teached me to bake brach.

Chapter 2: What are the differences between barn brack and tea brack?

143.317 - 152.059 Graeme Herterich

And yeah, so you're taking away the mixed peel so it's not citrusy. But yeah, the fruit with coffee is a beautiful combination. And I add in dates and chocolate and pecans.

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152.1 - 154.626 Brendan O'Connor

And do you fry brack? Can you fry brack?

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154.606 - 169.585 Graeme Herterich

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, listen, melted butter in a pan, let it go foaming, and then put in a slice of brack.

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169.605 - 172.609 Brendan O'Connor

Don't let Professor Robert Byrne hear you talking about that.

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172.93 - 173.29 Graeme Herterich

I know.

173.31 - 174.892 Brendan O'Connor

Frying brack and melting it in butter.

174.912 - 182.722 Graeme Herterich

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.

183.163 - 183.263

Yeah.

183.243 - 185.149 Graeme Herterich

That's how you know when you've enough butter on it.

Chapter 3: How did Graeme Herterich learn to bake brack?

255.268 - 256.45 Graeme Herterich

You have your, like...

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256.43 - 278.151 Graeme Herterich

stale bread a little bit of butter and then you're making a custard to go on top of it and baking it but you can do so much more like if you have leftover sourdoughs can be used or any bread really even croissants I've done it with croissants before or put a little bit of marmalade in bread and butter pudding yeah instead of the bread you can use croissants and do exactly the same thing or I have a very indulgent recipe in the book where you actually do it with brack

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278.131 - 279.594 Graeme Herterich

So it's a bracken butter pudding.

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279.634 - 280.756 Brendan O'Connor

A bracken butter pudding.

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280.776 - 295.566 Graeme Herterich

And that is really indulgent. But another actually lovely tip for a bread and butter pudding is you can actually just put some butter and some marmalade onto the bread and then arrange it in your little triangles like you would do traditionally and then pour over. But just the add of citrus in there is gorgeous.

295.613 - 317.103 Brendan O'Connor

I can't wait until after our next ad break because I can smell the brack sitting beside me. Graeme, you're going to be coming back to us but thank you for joining us today. You have two books. One is Bake and the other one is Cook and you'll find them in your bakeries, your two bakeries in Rialto and Athai. So congratulations. We will have you Brack again. Oh, see what I did there?

317.324 - 327.072 Brendan O'Connor

Absolutely terrible. I am afraid that is all we have time for. You can listen back to all of the conversations from today's show on the RT radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today,

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