Curnie Brac

By using a similar recipe as the Irish soda bread, but with only white flour and adding sultanas or raisins with a little bit more sugar, you can make, Curnie Brac, as we called it in our house. I´m guessing the name originated from the type of fruit ´cake´ called ´Brac´ made with ´currents´(which are similar but a smaller dried fruit). My mam, used to put fruit peel into it as well so if that´s your thing, chuck in a couple of teaspoons of that too. I´ve tried it with a handful for chop walnuts and some lemon zest which was delicious! Again, once you get the basic recipe you can experiment and tweak to suit yourself.   

To summarise: Follow the Irish soda bread recipe but make the following changes:

- Replace the wholemeal flour with plain flour

- When at the mixing it all together stage, add approximately 2 cups of sultanas (as mentioned above you can also add lemon peel or zest of 1 lemon, chopped nuts even glazed cherries ... experiment at will) 

- TIP: To plump up (though not compulsory) I usually soak the sultanas for a couple of hours in boiling water (just cover) with 2-3 shots of brandy or favourite liqueur and a teaspoon of Vanilla essence. All optional but yummy! IMPORTANT however to remember to prepare less liquid (buttermilk/ Yogurt & Water) by the amount of water you have added to soak your sultanas. You can add a drop more liquid if it´s too dry as you mix the wet and dry ingredients together. 

- Double the quantity of sugar for this fruit version of the bread.

- The fruit can make the mix a little heavier, so I usually add another teaspoon of baking powder or about 1/3 of bicarbonate of soda to offset this.

As I mentioned for the wholemeal soda bread, it sometimes takes a couple of goes to get the results you prefer depending on flour type, how much extra fruit/nuts you decide to add and your particular oven. However, it´s worth it as you will be making this for the rest of your life and hopefully you can pass it on to the next generation too!