Can I Make A Gluten-Free Bara Brith?

Our answer

Nigella's recipe for Bara Brith is based on a recipe from a Welsh family friend. It is a fruited loaf that falls halfway between a bread and a cake, as it is leavened with baking powder (contained in the self-raising flour), rather than yeast. We suspect that ground almonds (almond meal or almond flour) is not the best ingredient to make the Bara Brith gluten-free. Partly as the almonds will make the loaf quite heavy and a little bit greasy. The loaf deliberately contains no fat and introducing almonds, which contain a lot of oil, will affect the texture of the loaf.

We feel that it would be better to try using a blend of gluten-free flours that are designed for baking. In the UK, Dove's Farm Freee have a gluten-free self-raising flour or you could try using their plain flour or even the white bread flour and adding 2 teaspoons of baking powder (which should be gluten free but, it is always worth checking the packaging first). For the US, Cup4Cup gluten-free multipurpose flour has a good reputation for baking, though you will also need to add 2 teaspoons of baking powder for the recipe. Or you could use your favourite gluten-free flour blend for baking, adding baking powder if necessary. Gluten-free flours often require a little extra liquid, though the Bara Brith recipe contains qute a lot of liquid already. Once you have added the egg, check the consisency of the batter as it should be thick but not stiff. If it feels very stiff then stir in a couple of tablespoons of room-temperature water. However, please note that the loaf will have a different texture if made with gluten-free flours and may crumble more easily when it is sliced. And as we have not tried the Bara Brith with gluten-free flours ourselves, we are unable to guarantee the results.