Home » Food » By Ingredient » Bread » Irish Barmbrack (Báirín Breac) Irish Barmbrack (Báirín Breac) March 9, 2023 by Kimberly Killebrew · 38 CommentsAs an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.See my disclosure policy.This traditional Irish Barmbrack recipe is destined to become a family favorite.  Sliced, toasted and buttered, barmbrack is the ULTIMATE cinnamon raisin bread! What is Barmbrack? It is the Irish version of the tastiest cinnamon raisin bread you’ve ever had!  Barmbrack, also known as Barm Brack, is known in Gaelic as báirín breac, meaning “speckled loaf” because of the raisins.  It shares a similar etymology to Welsh bara brith (recipe coming soon!).

This traditional Irish sweetened bread is enjoyed all year round in Ireland but is particularly popular during Halloween where it’s accompanied by the tradition of hiding various items inside the loaf, each with its own significance.  If you found a ring you were destined to marry within a year (that’s assuming the person is single  – we can only hope or things could get really complicated); a pea meant you’d remain single; a stick meant you were doomed to an unhappy marriage (I don’t like the direction this is going); cloth meant poverty lied on the horizon (this is starting to get depressing); and the coin prophesied good fortune or riches (that’s a little better); a medallion meant you’d become a monk or in my case a nun (I’ll take the slice with the coin, th

Read More