Barmbrack (Irish Halloween Fruit Bread)

Method

1. 1Start the evening before. Brew 250 ml of strong black tea (Irish or English Breakfast) and pour it, still hot, over the 375 g of raisins in a large mixing bowl. Add the 50 ml of whiskey, stir, cover the bowl with a plate and leave it at room temperature overnight, or for at least 3 hours if you are short of time. By morning the raisins should be swollen and soft and most of the liquid soaked up. Fruit that has drunk its fill of tea is what keeps the loaf moist.
2. 2The next day, heat the oven to 170 °C with top and bottom heat (150 °C on a fan oven) and set a shelf in the middle. Grease a 900 g (2 lb) loaf tin, about 23 × 13 cm and 7 cm deep, with the 10 g of butter and line the base and sides with baking paper so it lies flat against the tin. The batter is sticky with sugar and fruit, and the paper lets you lift the loaf out in one piece.
3. 3Beat the egg in a cup. Stir it and 125 g of brown sugar (a light one) into the soaked raisins, together with all the tea and whiskey left in the bowl. Set a sieve over the bowl and sift in 225 g of flour (plain, all-purpose), 2 tsp of baking powder, ¾ tsp of ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp of ground nutmeg and ¼ tsp of salt. Stir with a wooden spoon only until no dry flour shows. You want a thick, wet batter that drops heavily off the spoon, with no dry pockets at the bottom of the bowl. Sifting breaks up lumps, so the baking powder and spices spread evenly through the batter.
4. 4Scrape the batter into the tin and level the top. If you want to keep the Halloween tradition, wash a plain ring, wrap it in a small square of baking paper, push it down into the batter and smooth the surface over it so no paper shows. A hidden ring is a choking hazard for anyone who doesn't know it is there, and biting down on metal can break a tooth, so tell everyone before you slice. When small children are going to eat the brack, leave the ring out.
5. 5Bake on the middle shelf for 60 minutes. The loaf is ready when it has risen, the top is deep brown and firm, and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean, without wet batter on it. If batter still clings to the skewer, cover the top loosely with foil so it doesn't darken further, bake for another 10 minutes and test again. Keep baking in 10-minute steps until the skewer comes out clean: the egg in the batter has to be cooked through.
6. 6Leave the loaf in the tin for 5 minutes, then lift it out by the paper onto a wire rack and peel the paper away. While it is still warm, brush the top with the 1 tbsp of honey, which gives it a glossy, slightly sticky crust. Let it cool completely, until it is cold to the touch all the way through. A brack sliced warm is gummy inside.
7. 7Wrap the cold loaf tightly in cling film and then in foil, and leave it at room temperature for a day before you cut it. Donal Skehan leaves his brack wrapped for one to two days before cutting, and after a day the crumb has settled and slices more cleanly.
8. 8If you baked a ring into it, tell everyone at the table before you cut the brack, so they bite carefully and check their slice. With a bread knife, cut it into 12 slices about 2 cm thick. If nobody has found the ring, it is still in the loaf: find it before you wrap the rest, or tell whoever eats the leftovers. Wrapped well, the brack keeps at room temperature for up to 3 days, and for longer in the freezer. Once it starts to dry out, toast the slices.