barmbrack (irish sweet bread)

I’ve made no secret of it… i love food holidays. Or rather, I love any holiday or occasion that has specific foods associated with it. There is simply nothing better than a perfectly themed meal.

It has always been what I love most about entertaining (especially holiday entertaining) I love making my food all work together in a cohesive way where everything is better all together.

But it doesn’t have to be a big entertaining event, even small themed family meals at home are a hoot for me to carry out.

This particular bread is perfect for st patrick’s day, and a departure from the more commonly served soda bread. While some recipes may contain raisins and different types of candied fruit and citrus, I chose to use two types of raisins, and orange zest in order to insure my kiddos would eat it. Think of it as an upscale raisin bread, if you will.

Ingredients:

3 1/3 cups blour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 package active dry yeast

2 Tbsp sugar

4 Tbsp kerry gold butter

2 eggs beaten

zest of one orange

1 cup cream

1 cup raisins

1 cup golden raisins

2 Tbsp irish whisky

Directions:

Soak raisins in whisky 2 hours before preparing the rest of the bread.

Butter a 8 x 11 inch pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, salt and all but 1 tsp of the sugar.

In a small bowl whisk 1 tsp of sugar and yeast packet.

Cut butter into small squares and add to cream in a microwave safe container. Heat for 1-2 minutes in microwave, until lukewarm and whisk. Add to yeast mixture and let sit for 5 minutes.

Add most of the egg, reserving just enough to egg wash the finished dough.

Using a stand mixer, beat liquids into the dry ingredients until batter is stiff but elastic.

Fold in raisins and orange zest.

Turn batter into buttered cake pan. Cover with cloth and let rise 1-2 hours until almost doubled.

Preheat oven to 400.

Brush risen dough with eggwash.

Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes. You should be able to cleanly remove a toothpick when done.