Somewhere between the last great Celtic migration and the Middle Ages, across the north western corner of the European continent, if you were of the upper class you had great privilege in near daily consumption of items like fresh baked bread and access to ingredients such as sugar & spices. For those in the poorer classes you were lucky if you could even fill your belly with oats and grains much less have sugar and spices. But the inspiration for a delicious food tradition easily spreads across classes and countries.
Spices like cinnamon and cloves and even sugar didn’t arrived after the crusades (11th century) extremely expensive and mostly used medicinally. It would be another couple hundred years before these items became more widely affordable and used in cooking and baking. And even tea was not common in this part of the world until the 18th century (especially after 1785), the English crown made tax cuts making it more accessible and launching it to become a daily staple across classes.
Early on bread was a common item found on tables in rural communities & small villages thanks to shared mills for grain and communal ovens for baking. In a simple Welsh home, you would have taken the last bits of your weekly leftover bread dough made from hand milled grain, eggs, and when lucky thrown in some dried fruits and then probably cooked in a communal oven, or baked it in the hot hearth embers or using a bake stone (griddle plate).
One of the earliest and most delish of traditional breads in some parts of Wales was Bara Brith bread. Traditionally a yeast based style of bread with tea soaked fruits added at first and then centuries later evolving into a sugar & flour-heavy fortified cake like bread when sugar became an everyday household staple in the 19th century. Regionally distinctive across Wales as to what was on hand but a similar practice of bread making is found in food traditions across the Celtic & British cultures.
The social aspect of sharing a cup of tea and a slice is found across the Celtic nations and that slice looks and tastes like cousins… The Irish call it “bairín breac”, the Scots “Dundee Cake”, the English “Lardy Cake” and the Welsh “Bara brith” .
All basic recipes with common elements but distinctive ingredient use such as fat (lard) or fermented with ale foam or dried fruit soaked in leftover cold tea. Even though Ireland, Scotland, England & Wales are fiercely different, the similarity in traditions and culture especially when it comes to foods is notable. A result of similar environments, cultivation practices and hostile amalgamations, for example…. The Welsh were most likely early Britons, left-over Romans mixed with Celts, and invaded by Picts & Saxons… a familiar pattern. And food historians have traced that baking scraps of leftover bread with honey to sweeten was a common trick of Saxon baking… the origin perhaps of all those cousin breads, Welsh Bara Birth for certain. And even in Wales, the origin of Bara Brith bread/cake is near folklore and every community seems to have their own method of deliciousness in ingredient use and preparation.
On my recent road trip around Wales we discovered both the yeast based bread and the sweeter cake versions of their Bara Brith everywhere we went. Both styles of bread/cake could be found on grocery shelves and almost all cafes and coffee shops had the sweet cake bread style on their dessert slice offerings. Both are fabulous slathered with rich salty butter (the Welsh do butter even better than the Irish!!) and a fruit jam or more honey is not even necessary but a further indulgence for sure!
I’ve shared a recipe below for the sweeter cake style bread that was shared with me from a lovely lady in Machynlleth Wales.
And if you want to discover more traditional Welsh recipes the Museum Wales website has a great food archive to deep dive.
Mwynhewch eich bwyd!
(The Welsh equivalent for Bon appétit!)
BARA BRITH
(sweeter cake style Welsh bread)
400g mixed fruit (e.g. sultanas, raisins, currants)
300ml strong hot tea (
250g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice (this is a common store item across the UK and is a mixture of cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice, and mace)
100g dark brown muscovado sugar (this style of sugar gives a slight molasses flavor)
1 free range egg, beaten
Honey to glaze
Put the dried fruit in a bowl and pour over the tea, mix in the sugar and stir well to dissolve. Leave to soak for at least 6 hours or overnight.
Next day, sift the flour and spice into the soaked fruit (no need to drain the tea) and stir in the egg. Blend well together.
Preheat the oven to 180°C /Gas 4. Line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper and pour in the mixture.
Bake for approximately 1 hour until the cake has risen and cooked through.
Leave to cool on a rack. Warm a little honey to drizzle over the surface of the warm cake for a glazed topping.
best if store for 2 days before eating. Serve sliced with butter.
This recipe can be doubled to make 2 loaves and will keep for up to 7 days.
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** historic photos not captioned from Amgueddfa Cymru: Museum Wales is a charity, and a family of seven national museums and one collections centre located across Wales. A wonderful collection of information and sites to visit to learn more about this beautiful and historic “country”.