Here is a wonderful recipe for St. Pat's day, that has yeast rather
than soda for leavening. I usually use graham or whole wheat for
half of the flour, unbleached for the other half. And a little
sourdough just for flavoring (maybe 1/8 cup? so you will need a
little extra flour). If you let it rise in a cool place, say 45-50
degrees, you can leave it overnight and bake in the morning.
Be sure to save some for that Corned Beef dinner, it is hard to resist.
Anita Flanigan
Barm Brack (Irish Yeast Bread)
Recipe By :Little Irish Cookbook (Chronicle Books)
Serving Size : lots Preparation Time: not long
Categories : Breads Irish
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1/2 cup milk -- warmed
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 egg
3 Tablespoons butter
2 cups mixed dried fruit, (raisins, white raisins,
cranberries),
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caraway seeds (optional but good)
2 tablespoons candied peel (some folks don't like this, so
eliminate it)
Cream the yeast and sugar and allow to froth up in the milk, which
should be at blood heat. sieve the flour, caster sugar and spice and
rub in the butter. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast
mixture and the egg, beaten. Beat with a wooden spoon for about 1o
minutes until a good dough forms. The fruit and the salt should be
worked in by hand and the whole kneaded. Put in a warm bowl, cover
and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour until doubled in size.
Knead lightly and place in a lightly-greased 7 in. cake tin and allow
a further 30 min rising time. Bake near the top of a preheated oven
at 400 degrees for 45 min. Glaze with 2 T sugar in 3 T boiling water
when it comes out of the oven.
Note: I usually use the bread machine on manual cycle to mix the
dough. Also use dry yeast instead of fresh.
These are the old fashioned directions from the book that my daughter
gave us many years ago. If you are mixing by hand, they are good to
go, but with the bread machine to mix the ingredients, just mix your
wet together, your drys together except for the fruit and the salt
and 1/2 cup of the flour. Add those at the beep on the second kneading.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Per Whole Bread (excluding unknown items): 1489 Calories; 46g Fat
(28.1% calories from fat); 38g Protein; 228g Carbohydrate; 8g Dietary
Fiber; 322mg Cholesterol; 1554mg Sodium. Exchanges: 12 1/2
Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 8 Fat; 2 Other Carbohydrates.