Christmas Soda Bread

December is such a busy time and what with my birthday, a wedding, my daughter’s numerous school performances and my son’s various exams and his trip to the Cologne Christmas markets, I’m afraid my Christmas recipe offerings have had to stay as ideas in my head until now. (Note to self, start making Christmas recipes in the summer)! So for my first offering I wanted to come up with a recipe that had all the flavours of Christmas in it. To me those flavours are marzipan, oranges, vanilla, mixed spice and dried fruits. I love Stollen and Panettone but wanted to make something which busy people and kids could make really quickly as I think we are all very short of time in the build up to Christmas! Hence my Christmas Soda Bread was born and the best thing is all the ingredients are usually things you have in your cupboards at this time of year (except perhaps the dried cherries which you could substitute for say dates or sultanas etc). I used spelt flours which are not only high in fibre but also add a lovely depth of flavour too but you could use wheat flours if you wished. This Christmas Soda Bread is actually ideal for using up all the leftover ingredients from your Christmas cake and puddings and it lasts for days. (I actually started off by making one double the size of this one but decided a smaller one was more practical).

My husband isn’t usually a fan of dried fruit but once he got a taste of my Christmas Soda Bread he became totally hooked! He said and I quote “it tastes a lot better than it looks”! Well my first attempt didn’t get in the oven quick enough as I got the proportions of flour wrong and had to add a lot more at the last minute! It’s so important with soda bread to get it straight in the oven and not hang about so hence my first attempt was totally delicious but had a completely lopsided rise to it! But it’s true it’s not the best looking loaf in the world but with a sugary crust and all the wonderful Christmas flavours in there it will make your kitchen smell so very Christmassy and spread with butter (and some strawberry jam if you like) it’s truly awesome. My teenage son loved the bread too but my daughter as ever won’t indulge in dried fruit (although she did try a sample of Panettone when we were out the other day so perhaps there’s hope on that front)!

I do hope you give my Christmas Soda Bread a go and manage to sit down and enjoy it with a nice cup of tea in amongst the hurly burly of the Christmas rushing around that we all do.

Festive Bread Wreath from Utterly Scrummy

Chocolate and Chestnut Spiced Loaf from Blue Kitchen Bakes

Chocolate and Pistachio Wreath from me.

As my loaf is festive, frugal and used up ingredients in my cupboard I am entering it into the following events: Credit Crunch Munch which I run with Fuss Free Flavours, No Waste Food Challenge over at Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary, Festive Food Friday over at Taming Twins and Treat Petite over at Baking Explorer which is co-hosted by Cakeyboi.