St Patrick's Day Fruit and Spice Bread

"Adapted from a recipe by Sarah Cook in GoodFood magazine. Best eaten warm, freshly baked. It's best by far not to substitute any ingredient."
 
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photo by Artandkitchen photo by Artandkitchen
photo by Artandkitchen
Ready In:
1hr 5mins
Ingredients:
14
Serves:
8
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ingredients

  • 4 ounces oats (rolled breakfast oats)
  • 7 ounces flour, all-purpose
  • 7 ounces wholewheat flour (plus extra for dusting)
  • 2 ounces butter, firm, cut into small dice
  • 4 ounces superfine sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
  • 2 teaspoons mixed spice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 ounces raisins, golden, seedless (sultanas)
  • 2 ounces dates, finely chopped (fresh is lovely if available)
  • 3 tablespoons mixed peel (dried mixed peel, used for Christmas baking)
  • 16 fluid oz buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3 -4 tablespoons sugar, dark brown (demerara, or use any brown sugar)
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directions

  • Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
  • In a food processor, whizz the oats and butter together. (Can also be done with fingertips, saving you cleaning the processor!).
  • Tip into a big bowl, and stir in the 2 flours, superfine sugar, baking soda, mixed spice, salt, raisins, dates and mixed peel.
  • Pour over the buttermilk and vanilla, and stir in briskly with a wooden spoon.
  • Tip on to a flour-dusted surface and gently form into a flattish ball. Transfer to a baking tin (cover it with baking paper first).
  • Sprinkle over the dark brown sugar (any brown sugar will do) and press the sugar in, all over the top. To be traditional, cut a cross in the top of the bread.
  • Bake for about 35 minutes, until crusty on the outside. Do test with a skewer, as ovens can vary a lot. Allow more baking time if necessary.
  • Nicest if eaten warm, in thick slices, slathered with real butter!

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Reviews

  1. I'm glad we tried this delicious traditional bread. <br/>It was really easy to prepare as I had all the ingredients I needed. For the spices I used: cinnamon, nutmeg, little spice-bread mix and cardamom.<br/>I prepared all the dry ingredients the evening before and added the liquid only in the morning.<br/>I used about 1/3 of cup less liquid, perhaps my oats adsorbed less than others.<br/>After placing the dough over a floured baking sheet I formed the bread directly there, made the cross and we baked it. In this way we had a delicious St.Patrick's bread, still warm from the oven.<br/>So yummy! Thanks a lot Zurie and a big HUG!
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I'm a widow, retired, and I love cooking. I live on the coast in South Africa and I love seafood. You're welcome to my recipes (all kinds, definitely not just seafood!) Just remember that no recipe is ever cast in stone -- adjust to your taste! The photo was taken at a rustic seaside restaurant on our West Coast, approx 1 year ago (2016).
 
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