The Question of Struan and Soda Bread
I thought this would be an easy one to respond to as I have many regional
British cook books but an hour later I was still thumbing indexes and
failing to come up with a recipe. The best I can offer you is a quote from
F.Marian McNeill's 'The Scots Kitchen - Its lore and recipes'
"Struan Micheil (St Michael's Cake) In the Hebrides there is a traditional
harvest cake made of a mixture of oats, barley and rye (representing the
fruits of the field) baked on September 29th in honour of St Michael. As
the bannock gains consistency in the firing it is covered on both sides
with three successive layers of a batter of cream, eggs and butter, in the
manner of the Beltane bannock Various ingredients are introduced into small
struan as cranberries, blackberries, brambles, caraways and wild honey"
The batter that is referred to as covering the bannock in layers sounds
rather like a glaze of butter, cream and egg which is described elsewhere
in the book. A bannock would be raised with bicarbonate of soda and an
acidic liquid such as buttermilk rather than yeast and is cooked on a hot
griddle plate not in the oven.
The nearest recipe I could find was the following from The Food and Cooking
of Russia by Lesley Chamberlain which is described as making wonderful
toast due to the oats used. I'm sure you could substitute some of the rye
flour for barley flour if you were trying to capture the flavours of a
'hebridean struan'.
450ml water boiling
180 g oat flakes or oatmeal
a half tablespoon of dried yeast, not instant
450g wholemeal flour or a mix of strong white and wholemeal
225g rye flour
1 tsp salt
Pour the boiling water less a few tablespoons over the oats and allow to
stand for an hour. Add the yeast, dissolved in warm water, then add the
flours and the salt to the oat and water mixture. Blend well and knead
until you have a smooth dough. This may require a little extra wheat flour.
Leave to rise until nearly double in bulk. Shape into loaves (sorry no
details given about this but I would guess a couple of small loaf pans for
this amount) rise again, bake at 425F for about 50 minutes gradually
reducing the heat. Cool on a wire rack.
Somebody has also asked about 'strong flour'. In England flour packaged as
'strong' is basically bread flour and usually contains 10-12% protein. In
Britain millers often mix Canadian flour with British flour to increase the
gluten content. The type of flour called for in Irish Soda breads can vary
but often includes a stone-ground wholemeal flour mixed with some white
bread flour. Having watched Darina Allen of the Irish Ballymaloe cookery
school making soda bread I think you have to learn to handle the dough like
a fairy, her hands hardly touched the dough as she mixed it, and it was
complete in a
blink. She is a wonderful lady and her book on A Year at Ballymaloe is
packed with superb, simple recipes. The school's web site is
http://www.ballymaloe-cookery-school.ie
Best wishes from Jill in Northern England