Irish Buttermilk Bannock
This is an Irish bread very similar to an Irish Soda bread, except an authentic Irish Soda bread only has flour, buttermilk, salt and baking soda in it's ingredients.
Since I have 'Sylvia's Irish Soda Bread' recipe on my blog. I wanted to add the Irish Buttermilk Bannock as well. Here it is a very traditional type bannock, which includes raisins or currants and eggs. Quick, easy and tasty to whip up to enjoy at teatime or anytime.
Irish Buttermilk Bannock
Pre-heat Oven 350F
4 Cups of All Purpose Flour - 125 gms. = l cup AP Flour - You can use a little less or more.
3 tsp. Baking Powder - Fresh
1 tsp. Salt
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1 Cup Currants or Raisins - I used golden and dark raisins - fresh and moist
2 Large Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk - 1 Cup Buttermilk = 240 grm - 8.5 oz - I used 390 gms and little extra flour
In a deep bowl. Sift or wisk together your dry ingredients and mix in the raisins.
Mix the 2 Eggs into your Buttermilk. A large measuring cup comes in very handy.
Make a well in the dry ingredients.
Pour in the buttermilk and egg mixture
Quickly and gently blend until the mixture is moistened and comes just together.
Scrape the mixture out onto a well floured surface.
With floured hands. Press gently together and give it a very gently kneading...I do about 3, while shaping into a disk.
Shape into about 2-3 inches high disk and place into one lightly greased pie pan.
With a large kitchen knife. Cut a cross down as far on the sides as you can go.
Bake about 1 hour and a quarter. Until nice and browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool about 15 min. and remove from pan.
I enjoy a slice, while still slightly warm. Very tasty with jam and butter, plain or toasted.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Sylvia
Comments
Faith and Begorrah, tis a luvly loaf of bannock you've created there Sylvia! :^)
You know I always seem to forget about making these quick breads until I see yours and am reminded of just how good they can be when mixed with a light hand. The crumb on your bannock looks sooo good, very soft, light, and no doubt delicious. Wonderful as always Sylvia, and thank you for the reminder.
Happy St. Paddy's day to you as well!
Franko
Well, it's that time of year again...what can I say, to something this easy and tasty : )
Sylvia
I'll not try to out-Irish Franko, Sylvia. But that looks so inviting. My first invitation to bannock was many, many moons ago during an 8-week canoe trip through Maine when bannock was our staple bread (along with sourdough pancakes). But ours lacked the wonderful ingredient touches of yours.
You're right, quick breads don't get the respect they deserve. But this is a recipe that could change that!
Slainte,
Larry
It's so nice to hear from you and I hope you are doing well.
Your canoe trip sounds wonderful and adventurous and you even brought along sourdough. Bannocks certainly have many a recipe, with their place, time's and many a story to tell.
Sylvia
bread to remind everyone that SPD is Sunday and it's time to put some Irish on! Got to get to the store and pick up some buttermilk and Beamish - for baking of course. Your crust and crumb look perfect!
Happy St. Paddy's DaySylvia.
Thank you, da : )
Don't forget to pick up a cornbeef and some Baileys for me.
Sylvia
that Bannock likely originates from Scotland. Before Ireland, that part of the family immigrated from Scotland- so it's Scots Irish now ! :-) Thanks fir the reminder to get the corned beef out of the freezer today - OK , that's done.
When I was in the food distribution business, one nof our vendors was GLK, Great Lakes Kraut out of Bear Creek, WI established in 1900. They make the fantastic and refrigerated Flanagan Brothers Sauerkraut - Bavarian style with caraway seeds is my favorite. In January every year, they would come out with their St. Paddy's Day specials for their wholesalers that distributed their products nationwide. I remember one fondly, where if you ordered so many cases of Flanagan Sauerkraut you would get a case of Baileys for free. We would combine all of our orders from the DC' 's around the country to get the best deal. We got a pile of Baileys that lasted for years in the cooler in Denver - where I was located at the time. Being in charge of operations has its benefits :-) The Baileys sort of followed me where ever I went.
Beautiful Bannock. Bet it tastes great too!
I bet you can whip up one great St. Paddy's day dinner!
Sylvia
Not so sure about that...my name is popular in Ireland but I'm not Irish at all....parents just needed a name with "I" in it to honor my grandfather who's name began with an "I".
Thank you for the thought though!
If it wasn't for you guys, i wouldn't have heard of no bannock, stollen, panettone, or even sourdough!
lovely sylvia! Very attractive crumb.
There certainly is a long list of breads on tfl : )
Sylvia
my comment got lost or I lost it but that bannock looks fantastic and I don't even know what a bannock is. I was comparing it to your Lemon Rosemary scones and wondering if it was similar, but I see the difference is cream vs buttermilk. I have to make lots of scones for an event, and was hoping to avoid the cream. Happy St. Pat's Day! -Varda
Yes, all are pretty much related. No cream or butter. I think the word bannock just means bread. There are all different versions of bannock's in many countries.
These are some very delicious scones I made not to long ago. No cream but, there is the butter of coarse.
I like this recipe from 'allrecipes.com' site. It's called Grandma Johnson's scones. You can add some great fruits, nuts, spices, savory, glazes, whatever...easy to work with, fast and makes a large single batch at once.
When I don't want cream...I use either sourcream, which this recipe has... Instead I used my homemade greek yogurt and they were delicious. Mike and I couldn't quit eating them. I added cherry cranraisins, homemade candied orange peel and topped with a sugar glaze..we wanted sweet..these hit the spot. I've also used frozen fresh cranberries in sconces dipped in sugar, they burst into such delicious pretty colours and flavors. But, dried tart cherry is my favorite fruit in scones...sometimes :)
Try these with yogurt... read the reviews..going close to 2000, 5 stars... they are pretty tasty. Making a lot of batches for a crowd will give you great practice in getting a light hand in the mixing and shaping. I don't like hard pressed rolled out scones. These are were only gently pressed into a flatish shape..even dropped scones ' gently balled up' are very nice.
Sylvia
when Scots cut a round shaped bannock into wedges they called the wedges 'scones'. Supposedly in Scotland, Bannock and scones are used interchangeably. Bannock cut into wedges laid on its side and covered and drizzled in lemon /orange powdered sugar or cream cheese icing . Your scones look yummy.
the list just goes on and on : ) When Irish soda bread is cut into wedges and pan baked, they are called farls..got some next to my soda bread post. The scones were gobbled up.
and now you've piqued my interest in greek yogurt. There is a greek store that I get to from time to time that has big tubs of fresh yogurt and it's wonderful but it's not close so I don't go there often enough. So I could make it myself? Thinking... -Varda
The greek style yogurt has become the new hit in yogurts. It's thicker, richer and creamier. You can make right in your B&T proofer. I buy it at Sprouts, a lot of chain stores carry it around here. Get it plain and use if for the seed starter.
Sylvia
yogurt for seed. In Greece they use goats, sheeps milk..but basically it's just yogurt that has the whey drained out of it..one of the reasons it's a little pricer in the stores.
I'll have to give it a try. The Cabot's "full fat" greek yogurt that I buy in the supermarket is good but never fresh enough. Thanks. -Varda
I never knew what that was, but now I know. After making several classic Irish soda breads for sale (not the type of loaf to be easily made in larger batches), I'm a bit "soda-breaded-out". But I might try it when I have recovered...
Nice looking breads, Sylvia, and interesting information on the relationship between soda breads and scones.
Will celebrate St. Patrick's Day with Guinness and Black & Tan Brownies.
Karin
I have to agree about the larger batches : ) Sounds like you are ready for a fine day off. I'm sure everyone will love the B&T brownies, they sound wonderful.
Sylvia